An Unexpected Enemy
by evgrrl09
Summary: When Garcia gets a new boyfriend, Morgan (who just confessed his feelings for her) finds something eerily familiar about him. When said boyfriend abducts her because he wishes to get revenge on Morgan, he's willing to go to any length to get her back and safe, including kill her kidnapper and his fellow unsubs. M/G
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing :(**

**So here's another angsty bit. I guess the angst bug that bit me left a little more in my system that anticipated. Hope everyone likes it okay! As always, reviews are appreciated :)**

Penelope walked lazily through the aisles of the bookstore, sipping her latte as she went. Derek's birthday was coming up and she still had no idea what to get him. Her best friend and she was absolutely blanking on the right gift for him. "Oh, Derek why do you have to be so impossible to shop for?" she muttered to herself as if hoping his voice would sound in her head with an answer.

"Shopping for a friend?" a voice sounded from behind her.

Turning around, Penelope found a handsome looking, yet geeky sort of man grinning at her. She smiled back and nodded. "Yeah," she said, taking his image in. Despite his wardrobe that bore a striking resemblance to Spencer Reid's and he wasn't ripped like the man she truly wanted, he was very handsome and she couldn't stop starting at him. "He's practically the hardest person to shop for in the world."

"Well maybe I could help you," he said. "I'm an English grad student."

Penelope smiled. "Oh! Well, he's not really a big reader, but his favorite author is Vonnegut," she explained. "If you know of anything like that he might like it."

"Something tells me you're so pretty he'll love anything you give him," he said sweetly.

She laughed. "Oh, thank you…"

"Jackson. Jackson Smith," he said, sticking his hand out to shake hers. "And you are?"

She shook his hand. "I'm Penelope Garcia," she said. She enjoyed the feeling of his hand in hers; though it was softer than Derek's and less calloused, she still liked how it felt. "So, what do you think I should get him?" For another hour she let Jackson guide her around the store, helping her find things with similarities to Kurt Vonnegut. He was extremely funny and kind to her, laughing even when he didn't understand her jokes she made about computers. When she had finally checked out, she said, "Thanks, Jackson." She held up the bag for emphasis. "I think he's really going to like these."

As Penelope turned to go, Jackson said, "Hey Penelope?" She turned around and smiled at him again. "Would you maybe come on a date with me?"

A shot of fear dragged Penelope back down memory lane at that moment. She found herself drawn to Battle and how he'd asked her on a date, only to shoot her right in front of her apartment. Should she trust this man who she barely knew at all to be any different? She knew exactly what Derek would say. _Baby Girl don't you even think about it!_

But to her surprise she found herself saying, "Yes. I'll go on a date with you."

XXXXX

_A Few Weeks Later_

"Morgan, if you don't do it now, you're never going to get the courage," Emily told Derek as he was pacing in his office. "You just need to go in there, puff out your chest, and ask her out. It's not that hard."

Wringing his hands together, he snapped, "Emily, I really don't think I can do this. I feel like I'm going to throw up."

Standing up, she put her hands on his shoulders to stop him. "Go in there and ask Garcia on a date," she hollered. "Everyone is sick of you not being able to do this when we damn well know you can. So go to her office, knock on her door, and ask her to dinner or whatever the hell else you can come up with."

Derek stopped and nodded a few times. "You're right," he breathed out. "You're right. I can do this."

"Of course I'm right," Emily teased. "Now, go get her so I can be the maid of honor at your wedding."

Taking a few steps outside of his office, Derek made his strides long as he went to Penelope's office. He'd been trying to get the courage up for years and only recently had he decided to do something about his feelings. He watched her every day, wanting to tell her how he felt, but nothing could come from his mouth whenever he tried to say something about his feelings. On the way, he saw JJ and she gave him two thumbs up and a bright grin. Groaning, he knew Emily had spilled the beans to her. Instead of being angry though, he laughed and continued on his way to Penelope's office.

Knocking on the door, he heard her call out, "Enter my lair dear one!"

Smiling, he said as he opened the door, "Hey Sweetness. How'd you know it was me?" He went into her office and smiled when she swiveled her chair around to face him. She was sitting cross-legged and was wearing a brightly patterned dress that accented her curves and a pair of bright red heels on her feet.

"Oh, Sugar don't you know?" she teased. "I have a sixth sense where you're concerned."

He smiled and stuck out his hands for her to take. Pulling her to her feet, he pulled her towards his body and saw her startled face he laughed. "You know something? I've wanted to ask you something."

"Wh-what?" she whispered. Her breathing had grown shallow and she almost gasped as he moved his lips over her to her face. He almost couldn't believe it himself that he was doing this. Just a moment ago he'd been terrified of ever saying anything to her. But this felt so right that he couldn't stop it. He put his lips over hers and kissed her softly. Pulling away from her, he said, "Penelope Garcia, will you go on a date with me? Not as friends, but as something more?"

She looked completely shocked. She looked like she was going to open her mouth and say something, but didn't. She just stood there, still in his arms, shaking slightly. "Penelope, can you say something?" he said softly in her ear.

Putting her hands on his chest, she pushed him away and shook her head. "Derek, I'm sorry," she said softly. "But I can't. I – I just can't."

Feeling his heart break, he felt his mouth fall open a little, but he clamped it shut. He nodded. "Oh, okay," he managed to get out. "Well, I'm going to go, um, see if Hotch needs something. They think we have a case."

She was going to open her mouth and try to explain, but she couldn't say anything more. He was already out the door. And at that moment, she knew she must've just broken his heart. The kiss he'd given her told her everything about his feelings. And for some reason, she thought she'd just broken her own.

XXXXX

Emily watched as Derek downed another Jack Daniels. She, JJ, and Derek had got to the bar after work. After they'd heard about Penelope turning down his request of a date, they'd been extremely confused. They knew she loved him, and the fact that she'd turned him down made them wonder what was going on in her life that she would abandon her hope of being with him. Perhaps she had someone else in her life. Someone not Kevin Lynch.

"You told me she would say yes," he slurred. "You told me she loved me too."

"She does," JJ insisted. "We don't know why she didn't say yes."

Derek snapped in frustration. "Guys, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do!"

"You're going to get off your ass and start trying," Emily said roughly. "You're not trying hard enough." She paused and added, "So we invited her here tonight. We didn't tell you were going to be here too."

Slamming his palm on the table, Derek got up to leave and shouted, "Dammit! Prentiss, JJ why the hell did you do that? She made it very clear she doesn't want to be here! That she doesn't want me!"

JJ put her hand on his arm and said, "That's not true! Maybe she's just scared."

As Derek was about to open his mouth again, Penelope came dashing up, not seeing that Derek was with the girls yet. "Ladies," she said happily. "I have someone coming –" When she saw Derek though, she clamped her mouth shut. "Oh," she said. She sent a scathing look at Emily for not telling her about his presence at the bar. If she had known he was going to be there, she would not have invited Jackson to come meet them.

Derek looked up at her and smiled, trying to not make things awkward. "Hey Bab –" He paused and decided to keep a neutral name. "Penelope." He didn't want things to be uncomfortable, but he knew it would be at least a few days, maybe a few weeks until he could get back to the pet names.

"Hey Morgan," she said softly, sitting down at a stool next to JJ. Now she gulped. Jackson was coming in the door and he saw her across the room, smiling when he did.

"Hey sweetie," he said, leaning down to kiss her cheek. He looked around at the rest of the people and gave an awkward wave. "Um, hi."

Penelope felt Derek's gaze boring into her and tried desperately to ignore it as she smiled at Jackson. "Hey there, you," she said softly, pulling Jackson in for a peck on the cheek. She knew it was terrible for Derek, and to some extent it hurt her as well. But she had to make sure her boyfriend didn't see the cracks. "Guys, this is Jackson Smith," she began. "My boyfriend."

Everyone looked like they were shocked. And they were. None of them knew she had a boyfriend. They all assumed she'd remained single after Kevin had walked out on her. Jackson smiled widely and said, "I've heard all about you. I feel like I know you all."

Derek scowled and downed another Jack. "Funny," he said dryly. "We've heard nothing about you."

The whole table went silent. Penelope looked at Derek and glared daggers at him. "You must be Derek Morgan," Jackson said evenly. "You're the one who calls my girl 'Baby Girl' and are her best friend."

Nodding, Derek slurred again, "Your girl, huh?"

But something was puzzling Derek. This guy looked vaguely familiar and he stared at him with interest. It unnerved him. Before he could say anything, Penelope jumped to her feet and grabbed Derek's arm. "I'm going to have a chat with Morgan here," she snapped. "He's drunk. While I'm at it I'm going to call him a cab and take his keys."

Everyone else nodded and said, "Okay."

Yanking him outside of the bar, Penelope pushed against his chest. "What's your problem, Derek?" she demanded. "Why are you being so stupid? Is it because I turned you down?"

"What do you think?" he growled back.

"Derek," she began softly, looking at him with compassion. "I'm sorry. I can't just dump him to go out with you. It's not right."

"Was it right to completely ignore the fact that I told you I love you and then go off with Lynch?" he yelled. "Was that right Penelope? I didn't want to give you up again and now I finally got the courage to tell you what I felt more seriously and you are with someone else. Who you didn't bother to tell me about when you first went out with him. I'm your best friend, Penelope and you couldn't trust me with something like this?"

She felt tears burning in the back of her eyes all the sudden and a few tears roll down her cheeks. "I didn't think you meant it as a lover," she said softly. "I thought it meant as a friend only."

"Well you should've thought harder, Garcia," he said harshly. "I meant every word I said. I love you with every fiber of my being. And watching you with someone else, Lynch or this Jackson fellow, kills me." He paused to move closer to her and pull her towards him. Even though he felt her stiffen, he ran his hands over her cheekbones and said, "And I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make you realize it." And then he kissed her passionately.

She couldn't stop herself from responding. His kiss, while tasting of whiskey, was filled with longing and she couldn't help but feel the love he had.

But then she remembered her boyfriend and she knew she couldn't do this. Derek was too late. If she and Jackson didn't work out, then maybe she would give him a chance. But until then she had a boyfriend who seemed to be falling in love with her already. So she did what she thought was logical; she pushed him away again. It was the second time in that day. "I'm sorry," she said. "I can't."

And without either of them saying anything, she returned to the bar, leaving him outside still.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own a single part of Criminal Minds…*tears fall down my cheeks***

**Here's chapter 2 of this. I hope you all enjoy and thank you for the reviews so far :)**

Emily sat down in JJ's office and let out a groan. "Jayje," she said. "I'm tired of the bullshit with Morgan and Garcia. It's ridiculous! Sure, they're still speaking, but they're not _them_. There's no pet names, no sickening flirting, no witty banter. They're acting…ridiculous."

"Agreed," JJ grumbled, slamming her file down on her desk and leaning back in her chair. "I'm tired of it too." Rising from her desk she began to pace. "We need to do something to do something to get them back to the road to each other." Both of them were noticing the cracks in their friends and knew they might implode on themselves within a given amount of time. They were meant to be together, Jackson or no Jackson. It was interesting how they both thought Jackson was nice, yet they couldn't stand how he was when he was with Penelope. Somehow the way he looked at her was similar to that of someone who'd just won a prize. And the way he looked at Derek; a look like he'd taken away the one person who meant most to him and it was all just a game. It unnerved them. Something wasn't right with him.

And they knew Derek was on a mission to figure out why Jackson Smith was so familiar to them all.

XXXXX

Derek was furiously searching for any clues in old case files for how he might've come across Jackson Smith before. Penelope certainly knew nothing of his new-found hobby or she would certainly have chewed him out and rearranged his personal records. She was fiercely protective of her boyfriend and since Derek's confession a month earlier, she'd shot down every stab at Jackson he made. They'd remained friends, but she took no shit on the subject of him.

As he poured through more files, Hotch knocked and arrived in the office, closing the door behind him.

"What do you want, Hotch?" he asked, barely looking up from his file.

"What do I want?" Hotch demanded. "I want to know why you're looking over case files from years back. You're looking at them like they're your only concern. Now I get that you're upset about Penelope choosing someone else over you, but this is beyond ridiculous. What does this have to do with anything? Are you simply trying to refresh your memory?"

Derek clenched his jaw in frustration before looking up. Growling, he said, "I just think there's something familiar about this guy. Something not right."

"Other than his having Penelope?" Hotch asked with a hard look.

Rising in anger, Derek roared, "Dammit Hotch! This guy is so familiar I just know there's something wrong with him! And I swear to God if he does one thing to hurt her, there won't be a damn thing anyone can do to stop me from destroying him."

"Derek, you can't just try to find something wrong with him," Hotch reasoned. "You probably won't find anything wrong with him. He's just a good guy who loves Penelope." On the inside he sympathized with his friend. He hated to see him suffer in any way, and just like with Lynch, seeing her with Jackson was killing him, slowly destroying every fragment of his being until eventually there would be nothing left but anger and despair.

"Not in the way I do," Derek said in a dangerous voice. "No way in hell will his feelings ever compare to mine." He shook his head and said, "Hotch, I'm telling you. There's something wrong with him. My gut isn't wrong."

Hotch looked at him sympathetically. Derek was a mess. He looked like he was in agony. And it was all because of a woman. Not a tough case, not a family problem, but Penelope Garcia. Putting his hand on his shoulder, he told Derek, "You need to realize something. The only thing keeping you two apart is her guilt over leaving him. Just be happy for her, and if it's meant to be, it'll happen."

"Don't expect me to stop looking for where I've seen him before," Derek growled. "If he dares hurt her, I'll rip him apart. Limb from limb."

"I know you will," he said with a small smile. "We're all going for a drink tonight. Come with us."

Derek scowled. "Is that an order?"

Nodding as he left, Hotch called over his shoulder, "Yes."

XXXXX

Penelope sat on a bar stool around a table with Emily, Reid, and Jackson wither. The whole team was at the bar that evening and Derek was pounding down drinks like there was no tomorrow. Penelope watched as he downed shot after shot, sliding down his throat like liquid poison. She also noticed the girls, all of them thin and model-like, flocking over him. She saw the way his mouth slurred as he talked suavely to them all and laughed along. His grin that Penelope loved so much glittered under the lights of the bar.

One of the women – a stick thin blonde – that was around him grabbed his hand and pulled him along to the dance floor with her hands running along his back and chest, her nails digging into his skin. Penelope felt the green snake of jealousy snake its way into her blood stream and crawl through her veins. Her blood began to boil and her hands clenched into fists.

"You want another drink, Penelope?" Jackson asked, nudging her slightly. "I'm going to get one."

Nodding somewhat stiffly, she said, "Yes. Please." As Jackson got up, Penelope continued to stare at Derek and the girl who was now groping him. She felt tears burning in the back of her eyes. But she had to remind herself that she had a boyfriend whom with things was going extremely well with. She wouldn't feel jealous. She _couldn't_ feel jealous.

"You okay, PG?" Emily asked gently.

Snapping her head up to look at her friend, she said shortly, "Yes. Of course I'm fine. I'm completely fine." Rising from her seat, she added, "Let Jackson know I'm going to the bathroom, please."

XXXXX

Derek moved to the music with a fuzzy brain and a girl – was her name Shelley? – was moving along with him. He didn't know why he was dancing with her; he vaguely remembered her pulling him away from the team onto the dance floor. But as he was dancing, he saw Penelope rushing to the bathroom and his brain stopped. He needed to see her. Wiggling out of the girl's arms, much to her protests, he ran off after her, barging his way into the women's restroom. He saw one pair of shoes underneath the stalls, so he knew it was safe to lock the door to the restrooms. When he heard sniffles, he knew this wasn't a visit to the bathroom. Leaning against the door, he waited until Penelope came out of the stall.

As she came out of the stall, using a piece of toilet paper to wipe her running mascara, she gasped when she saw Derek. "What are you _doing_ in here?" she spat.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly.

She tried to shove past him to get to the door, but he blocked her and grasped her by the shoulders. Pounding her fists against his chest, she cried, "Let me go!"

"I'm not going to do that, Baby Girl," he murmured, pulling her against him and wrapping her tightly in his arms to stop her from moving. He moved his mouth to her ear and whispered, "I won't ever let you go."

"Please!" she said quietly. "Please don't make this more difficult for me than it already is." She looked up into his eyes with her tear-stained ones and continued, "Please…"

Tilting his head down closer to hers, he whispered, "No."

"Let. Me. Go."

"No," he repeated. Before she could open her mouth again, his lips descended on hers, wrapping her in a fierce kiss. His arms stayed tightly around her and she couldn't help but fall under the spell of his lips. With his fingers tangled in her blonde curls, he kept her close to his body. She pushed him against the door harder and he pulled his face back slightly to laugh. "Sweetness, you like it rough."

Whispering huskily back, she murmured, "Hot Stuff, you have no idea."

Moving her against the counter, Derek helped her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist, her heels digging into the small of his back. Her arms were around his neck, running her fingers over his smooth head. "You taste so good," he said. He let his fingers slide up her legs and under her skirt. The feel of his fingers against her thigh made her shiver and as they traveled up farther she let out a soft moan. "And you feel good, too."

Pushing her skirt up to give him more access, she let him kiss her neck and tilted her head back for him to trail kisses all the way down her throat. "Derek…" she moaned.

"Yeah, Baby Girl?" he said in between kisses.

She pulled his face to hers again and kissed his lips again. "Don't you dare stop," she moaned softly.

And he didn't.

XXXXX

"You seem a little tense, Penelope," Jackson said as he threw his keys onto the kitchen counter when they entered his apartment. "Everything okay, hon?" He put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Penelope winced internally. After what she'd just done with Derek in the bar bathroom, she knew she'd just betrayed her boyfriend who'd done nothing but love her. "Yeah," she lied. "I'm fine. Just a little tired." Pointing to the bedroom, she added, "I'm just going to go lay down for a bit."

He nodded and said, "Okay, sweetheart. I'm going to go for a run. Work off some of the alcohol I drank."

She smiled and waved him off. When she heard the door shut behind him, she went to sit on the bed. Looking around at the simple, yet cozy room, she put her head in her hands and took a deep breath. There were no tears because she truly didn't feel sad about it. Yes, she felt guilty for what she'd done to Jackson, but she felt invigorated after making love with Derek. Though it had been in a bathroom on counter top, she still felt like nothing she'd ever experienced.

She remembered the feeling of his skin against hers; it was the most beautiful feeling in the world.

Rising in frustration from the bed, she went to the bathroom to splash water on her face before she decided what to do about her current situation. While she stood in the bathroom, looking at her reflection in the mirror, she kicked at the cabinets in frustration and was shocked when a panel shook loose.

Penelope squatted down and pulled the board out of the way. What she found scared her. A lockbox filled with surveillance photos of Derek. Along with it were clippings from a case that seemed familiar to her. And buried beneath it all was a gun.

Dropping the box, she gasped. She pulled out one of the photos and saw a tear fall onto it. What the hell was all this stuff? And why did Jackson have it?

And the most important question was: was Derek in danger?


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Here's the 3****rd**** chapter! Most of you hardcore CM fans will know this, but I made the case up that is referenced to in here. Thank you for the reviews so far everyone :)**

A chill of fear ran up Penelope's spine as she looked at the hidden lockbox she'd unearthed. What had she gotten herself into? Who was Jackson really and was he merely with her to get to Derek? She pulled the articles out, dated three years ago. They were about a case that had taken place in a small town in New Mexico and involved a serial rapist who killed his victims when he was finished with them. Se specifically remembered the thirteen year old girl the man had rushed at and Derek had shot him in the chest. His name had been Henry Talbot.

Covering her mouth to keep a gasp in, she heard Jackson returning from his run. "Penelope?" he called. "You awake still?"

Grasping the box in her arms, she went into the bedroom again where Jackson was changing. He turned around to smile, but his face fell as soon as he saw the box in her hands.

"What is this?" she choked through gritted teeth. Jackson kept his eyes trained down on the ground as if ashamed and she repeated herself. "What the hell is this?" Her voice had raised several decibels and she dumped the contents of the box out onto the bed. He remained silent. "Answer me!" she screamed. "Why do you have pictures of Derek and articles about this case? And what's with the gun?" When his eyes rose to meet hers she was shocked at the malicious gleam that had come to them. She tried to stare him down hardly, but the look in his eyes made her too nervous. It scared the hell out of her and she had to suppress the shiver she felt coming on.

"I didn't anticipate you finding that," he said in a low voice.

"Yeah, apparently!" she said harshly, hoping her voice would break him down a slight bit; it didn't.

His eyes stayed on hers from that moment forward, boring into her and making her bones go numb.

"This puts me a little ahead of schedule," he continued, staring at her unblinkingly.

"What schedule?" she hissed angrily. "Stop avoiding the subject, Jackson. I'm not in the mood. Tell me why you have surveillance photos of Derek along with a gun hidden in a lockbox!"

He laughed. "You see, everyone gets what they deserve, one way or another. And Agent Derek Morgan is no exception," he replied, still shying away from the real meaning of his words. He leaned down to pick up one of the photos that lay scattered on the bed and looked at it with hate.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Advancing closer to her, he dropped the photo and growled, "Your beloved Derek Morgan – who I _know_ just fucked you in the bar bathroom – is going to pay for what he did. By the way, did you really think I wouldn't know what you were up to? You came out of the bathroom after twenty minutes and you practically _smelled_ of sex." A vicious bark of a laugh escaped his lips. And at the moment Penelope didn't feel a single ounce of guilt anymore over sleeping with Derek. Apparently Jackson wasn't with her because he loved her.

Jackson was with her to get to Derek.

He paused to grab an article from the bed and held it up to her face angrily. "This man, the one Agent Morgan shot and killed, was my younger brother!"

Choosing not to say anything about her bathroom bar visit with Derek, she said, "He was a rapist and a killer. He tried to attack a thirteen year old girl while Derek was there, so he did what he had to to protect her! Your brother got what he deserved." She backed away as he continued towards her. When he had backed her into the wall, his fit slammed into the wall next to her face, causing her to flinch. He laughed.

"My brother was just twenty-three and –" he tried to say.

"Your brother was a sick rapist," she spat in interruption. "He hurt women because he wanted control over them!" She didn't see his palm come down to slap her; he was lightning fast. It stung and she tried to back away again.

"Don't say a word about him!" he bellowed. "He was just a kid. Agent Morgan didn't have to shoot him!" His face was crimson with rage. Grabbing her by her hair, he pushed her away from the wall while she tried to fight him off. Despite not being as big as Derek, he was strong and was able to fend her off and push her to the ground in a matter of seconds. On the way down her head collided with the edge of the bed. A throbbing broke out in her forehead and a trickle of blood went down her face. Groaning, she tried to rise from the floor, but her head was spinning so fast that she fell again.

"Don't try and say your precious Derek could profile Henry," Jackson said, picking up the gun and pointing it at her. "Agent Morgan is going to pay for what he did. And seeing as he loves you more than anyone on this earth, I'm going to use you to get to him. You're one of the few people he trusts. You'll do the trick perfectly."

Spitting at his feet, Penelope said, "I won't let you anywhere near him. You're not going to get to him. Because if you hurt him, I'll make sure there isn't a corner of the world that's safe for you."

"Oh, I'll get to him," he laughed wickedly. Kneeling down next to her, he put the gun to her temple, digging it into her skin. "You were always the first phase of this plan. I got to you, and you being you didn't want to break poor innocent Jackson's heart, and you turned down the man you really love. So when I had you, I saw the look in his eyes. A look so full of heartbreak and desperation. Watching him suffer was thrilling for me. But now he must think he's going to get you because you fucked in a bar bathroom. Oh, but he's not. I'm going to take him from a broken heart to a _shattered_ one. When he sees what I do to you, he'll be so full of grief that he'll be begging for death when I find him." He grinned cruelly and added, "Then, and only then, will I kill him. He'll be on his knees and I'll put a bullet through his brain."

Penelope couldn't stop the tears that flowed from her cheeks as Jackson –was his name even Jackson? – described every way he planned on breaking Derek. In an attempt to wipe the evil smirk off his face, she shook her head and said, "I'm not going to help you with anything. So you'll just have to put a bullet through my head right now. You'll not get him through me."

Clucking his tongue, he shook a finger in her face. "No, no Penelope," he tsked. "You'll be helping me whether you want to or not. Because I'm going to torture you while he watches and sees all my handy-work. I have your phone, so I'll have his number. And he will suffer. That's a promise."

"One you won't be able to fulfill," she hissed through gritted teeth.

"When he sees his Baby Girl bloodied and bruised, he won't be able to get up off his knees."

XXXXX

When his phone started to ring, Derek was tempted to ignore it. He didn't have the energy or proper state of mind to talk to anyone. After their meeting and eventual sex in the bathroom, Penelope left without a word. He had no idea now when things might be right between them again.

The worst part was now that he'd had her, he never wanted to let another man touch her again.

He could still fee her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs around his waist as he made love to her. He could still taste the cinnamon softness of her mouth and tongue. And he could still hear her words in his ear through the whole thing.

_I love you…_

Glancing at the caller ID out of pure curiosity, he frowned when he saw Penelope's name pop up. He certainly wasn't expecting her to call him.

Hesitantly, he answered it. "Penelope?" he asked in a quiet voice. He hoped she wasn't calling to yell at him.

"Agent Morgan," Jackson's voice said. "How are you this evening? Well I'm assuming seeing as you just fucked _my_ girlfriend."

Derek gulped. _Shit_. "Listen, Jackson –"

"No you listen, Agent Morgan!" he hollered. Derek was taken aback. Jackson seemed like someone who never lost his cool. "You're going to pay for what you did."

"Listen, it was my fault," Derek said hardly. "Don't do anything to her. She didn't mean for it to happen."

Jackson laughed bitterly. "You think I'm talking about Penelope? Your 'Baby Girl,' as you so sickeningly call her? No, I'm talking about my brother, Henry Talbot."

Derek's blood froze and he stopped breathing. He remembered Henry Talbot and even more vividly he remembered shooting him.

So that's how he knew Jackson. He was an unsub's brother. "What does this have to do with Penelope?" he demanded. "She's got nothing to do with this."

"Oh, but she has _everything_ to do with this!" he said happily. "She's my tool now. She's what's going to bring you to me."

"What are you talking about?" Derek asked hoarsely.

"Check your incoming text messages," was Jackson's simple answer.

Derek looked down to his phone and saw a text with a picture of Penelope, two sets of arms holding her by the shoulders and her face had a black eye and a cut above her temple. He gasped and roared into the phone, "You son-of-a-bitch! She has nothing to do with _this. _Your problem is with me, not Penelope."

"You're right," Jackson admitted. "This doesn't have anything to do with her. But because she's who matters most to you, she's going to suffer. Trust me; you'll have to watch it all. And only when I deem you sufficiently tortured will I end it. But by then you're not going to have much left to live for anyway."

With tears in his eyes – something that was extremely unusual for him – Derek began to pace. "Please, Jackson," he begged. "I'll do whatever you want. Don't harm her." Rational thought had abandoned him. Everything was about getting Penelope out and safe.

Ignoring his plea, Jackson said, "And she's going to be in a whole world of hurt right now and for the time ahead. She told me to put a bullet in her head before she would tell me a single word. She said, and I quote, 'I won't let you anywhere near him.'"

"Please Jackson!" Derek pleaded. "I'll give myself up. Leave her alone. I'll do anything."

"Agent Morgan, you should know by now that my name isn't Jackson," he sniggered. "My name is Harold."

"Harold, Jackson, whatever!" Derek snapped. "Let Penelope go!"

"No."

Gritting his teeth and clenching his free hand into a fist, he growled, "Then _you_ should know that I'm going to find you, and when I get my hands on you, I'm going to rip you apart until they'll have to bring more than one body bag for you."

"By the time you find us, you'll be too late," Harold snickered. "You're going to fail her, Agent. You'll no longer be her knight in shining armor. You'll no longer be her 'Hot Stuff.' You'll just be the man who couldn't save her…again." With another laugh, he said, "And because I'm generous, I'm going to let you two say goodbyes to one another."

Derek was going to open his mouth again, but then he heard Penelope's voice on the other end of the line. "Derek?" she sobbed.

His heart broke at that moment and he said, "Penelope, I'm going to find you! Don't worry."

"No! Don't!" she screamed. "They'll kill you. Please, Derek don't come. It's what he wants. I just want to tell –"

Slamming his hand down, he bellowed, "Don't you dare say that! I'm coming for you and I'm not going to stop until I get you back."

"I love you, Derek," she choked out. "Goodbye."

"Penelope!" he cried. "Penelope, speak to me!"

Harold's voice broke out again and he was snorting with laughter. "Well, that was touching," he said. "Savor her words, Agent. She'll never be saying such things again."

Tears now fell from his eyes and Derek hissed, "When I find her, you're going to wish you'd stayed in the same hole your sick brother came from!"

"Don't talk about my brother! You're nothing but a murderer," Harold said, his voice rising in anger. "You'll be hearing from me again soon," he added before the line went dead.

With his phone still to his ear, Derek slid down against the wall until he was sitting with his head in his hands. His phone dropped to the floor with a clatter and he had to resist the urge to throw it out the window. But it was his one and only lifeline at this point to Penelope. Harold would likely drop the phone after this call so no one could trace him, but it was a start. Derek rose from the ground, his stomach still churning in knots and he picked up the phone again. The picture from the text message was still there and he tried hard to keep the bile from coming up his throat. Shaking his head and clearing his throat, he hit Hotch's speed dial and waited patiently for him to answer.

"Hotchner," came his boss' swift answer.

Making sure his voice was level before speaking, Derek said hoarsely, "Hotch, we've got a situation…"

**So, what do you guys think? Next chapter will be up before the weekend is done…hopefully. Reviews are appreciated as always! I love getting feedback from you all :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Here's chapter four! Still reading **_**Crime and Punishment**_** so this story is gonna go slower than I want it to :( Thanks for the patience and as always I love your reviews :)**

The entire team was gathered in the round table room, the picture of Penelope Derek had received via text up on the screen. It was three in the morning and Derek was fuming, cursing, and pacing. Anyone who tried to say something to him or got within three feet of him was on the receiving end of his wrath. They'd called Kevin Lynch in to be their technical analyst and he was working furiously to follow Derek's every order.

"Agent Morgan, I'm working as fast as I can!" Lynch cried. His fingers were flying like lightning across the keyboard as he spoke.

Derek's eyes turned obsidian with fury as he whirled to face Lynch. "Work faster you damn idiot before I break your nose!"

Lynch shot from his chair and hollered, "Don't act like you're the only one who cares that she's missing, _Agent_! _I_ love her. She may have left me, but that doesn't change anything."

Derek advanced closer to the shorter man, his eyes wide with fury. Rossi looked hardly at Kevin. "Lynch, I suggest you back off," he warned. Derek looked ready to pounce on him at any moment and no one was really interested in having him arrested for assault when Penelope needed him most.

But Lynch, not understanding that Derek was two seconds away from throttling him, went on, not heeding Rossi's warning. "And you know what? I thought she left me to be with you, because she called me 'Derek' once. But no, she hooked up with someone else. Someone you couldn't protect her from. I may love her, but she'll never be happy if she keeps bedhopping!"

Even Rossi being close enough to stop him didn't stop Derek's fist from connecting with Lynch's face and he stumbled backwards, falling to the ground. No one made a move to help him up.

"Get out, you son of a bitch!" Derek roared. "We'll get someone who will help us get Penelope back without insulting her with every breath he takes."

As Lynch rose from the ground, nursing his bleeding nose, he glared at Derek and stomped out of the room, knowing that if he tried to speak again he might get strangled to death and no one would do a damn thing to stop it.

Breathing heavily, Derek sank down into a chair and put his head in his hands. His shoulders began to shake and the team realized for the first time ever they were seeing him break down. JJ sat next to him and put an arm around his shoulder. "Hang in there, Derek," she said supportively. "She'll be back and safe before you know it. And you know why? Because _you're_ looking for her. She knows you'll never stop."

Wiping his face, Derek's tear-filled eyes looked up. "Lynch is right," he said. "I couldn't protect her from this. I didn't remember Talbot had a brother. I should've remembered why the man looked so fucking familiar!" He continued to curse himself.

"No," Emily said firmly. "This isn't your fault. We're going to get her back and you'll see that Garcia doesn't blame you one bit. Right now we need to work the profile on Harold based on what we know about his brother."

Derek rose to his feet. "No," he insisted. "We're going to find him and I'm going to give myself up. I won't let him hurt her because of something I did."

Hotch shook his head. "No Morgan. Not happening. You know he won't let her go. If it's suffering he wants to inflict upon you, he won't let her go, even if you give yourself up. We find them and we take them out with SWAT agents, the works. I won't lose both of you."

Slamming his fist down on the table, leaving a resounding crashing noise in the room, he snarled, "Dammit, I'll find a way to get her out! I won't leave her there to be tortured!"

It was evidently clear to the rest of them that Derek had lost it. He wasn't thinking like an FBI agent anymore; he was thinking like a man hunting for blood.

Before Hotch could respond, Derek's phone rang with an unknown number. Without another thought, Derek answered the phone.

"This is Morgan," he said gruffly.

"Agent Morgan," Harold drawled. "Turn on your webcam. Don't do it and I'll make things worse for Penelope."

"Pull up the webcam," Derek growled to the new tech who'd silently entered the room only a minute before. The younger man balked at him and Derek glared harshly. "Do I need to repeat myself? Or do you want me to rearrange your fact the way I did Lynch's?"

"On it, on it!" the tech squeaked. Hurriedly he pulled up the webcam feature on the computer. "Connecting to the unknown contact."

"Trace it if possible," Hotch ordered.

As soon as the webcam was up and running and Derek was standing in front of it, Harold's handsome face appeared and grinned at the room full of agents. "Hello, all!" he chirped. "Just in case you were wondering, Penelope is right behind me. You can all see her in a moment."

Derek's fingers gripped the edge of the table tightly and he stared daggers at the man on the other side of the screen. "Get the fuck out of the way, Talbot," he demanded. "Let me see her."

Harold nodded as if he understood and moved so that Penelope was visible. She looked like she had in the picture and Derek was relieved that nothing worse had happened to her. Looking up from her sitting position on the floor, Penelope's eyes fell on the computer screen where she saw the faces of her team and Derek. He could tell that tears were filling her eyes and he felt the overwhelming desire to both comfort her and rip Harold's throat out for what he'd done.

"Derek," she murmured.

"Hey Baby Girl," he said, trying to stay calm for her sake. If he overreacted he might just make her more upset.

Before she could say something else, Harold gave her a swift kick in the stomach and she buckled over, trying desperately to hide her groan of pain that wanted so badly to escape her lips. On the other side of the camera, Derek winced, but kept his anger in check as best as he could. It was taking every ounce of his energy to try and not jump through the computer screen and beat the shit out of Harold for harming Penelope. He had to close his eyes momentarily to block out the pain he was feeling for what was happening to her because he'd shot an unsub.

"Feel that, Morgan?" Harold hissed, kicking Penelope again. She fell over onto her side and clutched at her stomach, her eyes closed in an attempt to hide tears. "That's the pain of seeing the one person who means everything to you suffering. Did you know that before he died at the hospital, Henry was in an extreme amount of pain? That's what I'm going to do to your _Baby Girl_. I'm going to make her go through that pain." This time, his foot landed a kick to her jaw and blood trickled out of her mouth.

"Stop! Please!" he begged, shooting to his feet. "Talbot, I'm sorry I killed your brother. Please, stop hurting Penelope! She did nothing to you; she had nothing to do with his death!"

Harold merely laughed and shook his head. "No, no Morgan," he snickered. "I'm not done with her yet. And my…colleagues have barely gotten started."

A pit formed in Derek's stomach as he began to understand the meaning behind those words. His mouth dried up instantly and he felt tears burning in the back of his eyes. "Don't," he pleaded. "Please!"

Grabbing Penelope by the hair, Harold threw her roughly against the concrete wall and she couldn't stop the grimace and groan of pain she felt as her body slammed into the hard surface. It was becoming too much for her to handle. Her glasses had hit the wall just right and were now cracked, but when she managed to look into the camera she saw the distraught look on all her team members' faces. But Derek's was worst of all. She could tell through the computer that he was fighting to hold back tears and her heart ached knowing that he was in so much emotional pain.

He did love her. Not just lusting after her, not just for sex in public places. He loved her because they were connected in a way no one else could understand. Her pain was his pain and vice versa.

Harold pulled her up from the ground again and ground out, "Get up you lousy bitch. You may have been a fucking good lay, but you're useless to me other than causing _him_ pain." He landed a punch to her already bruising jaw and Derek lost it.

"Let her go! Harold, I will get down on my knees and beg for her release. Please, let her go!"

This caused a chuckle to erupt from his mouth. "You'll be on your knees soon enough," Harold spat. "If you decide to come and find me, that is."

"Oh you can count on me finding you," Derek snapped.

Penelope's voice had risen. "Don't you dare come, Derek Moran," she said raggedly. "You will die if you come here, do you hear me! You'll die!"

Harold landed another slap to her face and proceeded to choke her, pushing her up against the wall, punching her in the gut this time. She let out a cry of pain and Derek felt his heart straining yet again. He didn't care what Penelope said; he was coming to find her.

Harold shook his head and released Penelope and she crumpled in a heap on the concrete. "Good luck finding me, Agents," he spat, flipping the camera off so the screen went black.

XXXXX

Penelope coughed several times after Harold had released her throat. Her hands were on the cold ground and she felt tears stinging in her eyes. Seeing Derek in distress had increased her pain tenfold and she glared up at her captor. "He'll kill you as soon as I'm dead," she hissed, rubbing her darkening neck. "He will find you and make sure you don't make it out of anything alive."

Clucking his tongue, Harold shook his head. "As I said before Penelope dear," he said with faux sweetness. "Your beloved is going to so shattered he'll never even have the will power to raise his gun. The gun that killed Henry." His hand slid down her thigh and she recoiled in disgust. She could hardly believe she'd ever been to bed with this monster before her. He gestured to the men standing around the room. They all stared at her with hungry gazes and she shuddered with fear. "The only thing keeping them at bay is my strict order to leave you alone until I give the final sign. Your gang-rape incident is going to affect you in terrible ways and Derek Morgan will be dead and unable to help you get through the intense victimization you endured."

"You're sick," she spat angrily. "You're just like your fucking brother. A narcissistic brute who raped women when he was done with her.

Harold grabbed her chin and his eyes darkened in anger. "What have I told you about saying such things about Henry?"

"Go suffer and die!" she hollered. "Join your brother in hell, because that's where you both end up."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds…I just use it as a writing playground.**

**Sorry this is getting out so late! I've been working on all sorts of school things and that, my dearies, is no fun. Anyways, thank you for the reviews so far :) I love the feedback!**

"Were you able to get anything?" Hotch asked the tech who'd joined them. "Anything to trace to a location?"

He shook his head and looked nervously at Derek, probably praying he wouldn't punch him the way he'd punched Lynch. "Nothing definitive," he said solemnly. "I was only able to get a rough estimate area. They're using really simple equipment. It's not easy to get a trace on. And as soon as he turned off the webcam, all signal disappeared."

"We should still check it out," Emily said decisively. "We have to."

Hotch nodded his agreement. "I'll notify the authorities in the area, let them know we need backup."

Derek looked around at his team like they were crazy. "Guys, we can't waste time getting the cavalry together! We should just go check it out now. Or at least send me to check it out."

"No," Hotch said. "You're staying here. You won't be coming anywhere near Harold Talbot because we all know he'll be dead in two seconds if you find him."

"Hotch!"

Hotch held up his hand to silence Derek. "There's no discussion here," he said in a clipped tone. "Giving Talbot what he wants is only going to fuel his feeling of superiority over you. So you're staying here." Nodding at Reid, he said, "And Reid is staying with you."

"What?" Reid and Derek said at the same time. Reid's response came out as more of a gulp while Derek's was more like a growl.

"You heard me," Hotch said. "Reid is going to keep an eye on you while we go out looking and he's going to make sure you don't leave."

XXXXX

After the team had left, Derek and Reid were sitting in his office, Reid glancing at Derek rather nervously every few seconds. He was sitting in his chair, a fiercely angry look on his face. There was a ticking in his jaw and every time he shifted in his seat Reid gave a small jump. There were many things Reid was good at, but anticipating what a livid Derek Morgan was going to do was not one of those things.

"Didn't Hotch say he was going to update us every hour?" Derek growled, glancing at his watch. It had been two hours since the team had left and there was nothing. Nothing to give him any indication that they had found anything of use. It was driving him to insanity.

"They probably found something and it just slipped their mind," Reid suggested hesitantly.

Derek grumbled incoherently. Amidst his cursing, the buzzing of his cell phone perked both him and Reid up. He looked hungrily at the text message but felt his stomach drop ten feet. It wasn't from Hotch. It was from an unknown number. Attached to the text was another picture of Penelope, her injuries from her most recent beatings prominent and extremely visible. Beneath the picture was a small message.

_Noon. Come alone or she dies._

There was an address somewhere in DC along with it.

"Who's it from?" Reid asked when Derek didn't respond immediately. "Everything okay?"

Rising from his seat, Derek made a move for the door. "No," he choked. "They requested a meeting. I'm going."

Reid moved to stand in front of the door to his office, blocking his exit. "Morgan, you can't do that. You know what Hotch said. You can't go without having some backup."

"Move, Reid," he growled. "I don't want to hurt you, but if you don't get out of my way, I won't hesitate."

Swallowing, Reid said, "Think about this Morgan! You're not being rational right now. If you slow down and think, you'll realize how insane this sounds."

"What's insane is that you all won't let me do whatever it takes to get Penelope back!" Derek said furiously. "Now _move_."

Reid shook his head. "I can't do that," he said with concern.

Turning around to face his desk again, Derek bowed his head and said, "Sorry man. I don't know what's gotten into me. I just –"

"You love her," Reid said softly. "It's understandable."

Turning around, Derek added, "And I'm sorry about this too."

Confused, he asked, "Huh?" He didn't see anything other than Derek's fist hitting him in the face and knocking him flat on his back and into unconsciousness.

XXXXX

With a pounding in her head, Penelope opened her eyes and tried to move her sore limbs, only to discover that she couldn't. Her wrists were tied to the arms of a simple chair and her ankles were tied to the legs. Groaning, she winced as her jaw throbbed in the spot where Harold had kicked her. She was fairly certain he'd cracked one or two of her teeth. Looking around at her surroundings, she groaned. There was still only a dim amount of light and she could barely see anything. The one thing she could see was the shape of one of the men keeping an eye on her. She shivered as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Since Harold's threat about allowing his fellow kidnappers to rape her, she'd been extremely skittish of anything that moved.

The one door to the room opened and a blast of bright light hit Penelope's eyes, causing her to squint as the rays hit her corneas painfully. "Good morning!" Harold stepped into the room and came to stand in front of her. "Feeling okay this morning?"

She glared up at him hatefully from her sitting position. "Just wonderful," she answered sarcastically. Her jaw hurt even worse when she spoke and she cursed herself when she felt tears well up in her eyes.

"Good," he said, clapping his hands together excitedly. "That's wonderful to hear." He knelt down in front of her and added, "Guess what?"

Rolling her eyes, she spat, "What?"

Grinning, he said, "Your lover boy is coming to a meeting I've arranged."

Her eyes immediately grew wide. "No," she whispered. She tried to fight against her restraints. "Please! Don't hurt him." Tears began to fall from her blackened eyes. "Harold, leave him be."

Grasping her by the chin, he lowered himself to her face level and said, "Oh, no. I'm not going to this meeting. But he'll be in pain. Count on it." He smirked at her fearful expression and kissed her roughly.

Forcing herself not to choke on bile, she bit down on his lips as best she could and he yelped in pain. She admired her handy work on his lips and he glared at her, wiping his blood from his mouth. Smacking her hard, he growled, "Believe me Penelope. Derek Morgan should be the least of your worries right now."

XXXXX

The address Harold had sent him through the text message led him to an abandoned party store in a rundown part of DC. He was looking around at the empty shop and kicked at a dusty shelf as he waited impatiently for Harold to arrive.

"Harold's sorry he couldn't come here," a voice said, entering the party store. "He's been otherwise…detained." The messenger smiled wickedly and came closer to Derek. He held out his hand to shake Derek's. "I'm Seth."

Derek stared unpleasantly at his hand and glared at him. "Where's Penelope?" he demanded.

Seth laughed. "She's doing okay…if you call beaten to a bloody pulp okay. We've had to restrain her; she's such a little fighter." He cocked his head to the side and added with a sneer, "I wonder if she'll fight as hard on the mattress."

With fury in his eyes and wrath backing his punch, Derek's fist slammed into the younger man's face. Angrily, he rammed him into the wall and held his arm across his neck, cutting of his oxygen supply. "Tell me where she is," he hissed angrily.

"Is that jealousy, Agent?" he choked out with a smirk on his face. "Are you afraid she'll say one of us is the best she's ever had and not you?"

Taking his gun from his hip, Derek pointed it at Seth's foot and pulled the trigger. A screech of pain erupted from his mouth and Derek couldn't help but smile. "Feel that?" he growled. "Because if you don't talk, I'm going to shoot your other foot. And if you _still_ refuse to talk, I'll shoot your balls off. You understand me?"

"You son of a bitch!" Seth cried. "You shot me!"

"It'll heal," Derek said unsympathetically, tightening his arm against his neck. "Where is Penelope? Where are you keeping her?"

Seth's brow became sweaty and he choked, "Let go of my neck and I'll tell you everything I know." He winced as Derek's grip loosened and looked down at his bleeding foot with anguish. "Listen, I don't know anything about where they're keeping her." He held up his hands in surrender as Derek aimed his gun at his other foot. "I was hired to come and taunt you. I don't know anything about her location or the guys that are in charge of the whole thing. All I'm doing here is making a little extra cash. Frankly, I thought I was just here to piss you off. I didn't think they actually took anyone. I didn't think this was real. Just something to scare you. No one told me there was a danger of getting shot!"

Pulling out his cellphone and presenting the most recent picture he'd received, he shoved it under Seth's gaze and hollered, "Does _this_ look real enough for you?" He noticed Seth's frightened look and added, "Give me the name of the man who hired you and I'll call an ambulance for you."

Seth nodded and he said, "His name is Drake. Drake, er, Melvin! That's right, it's Melvin. His card is here…" He pulled a rumpled business card from his jacket pocket and handed it to Derek. "Listen, man," he added. "I'm sorry. If I had known this was serious I wouldn't have done it. Drake just seemed like a normal guy."

Glaring at him, Derek snarled, "An ambulance will be here soon."

Letting go of Seth's collar, he watched as he dropped to the floor and began to nurse his bleeding foot before heading back out of the shop and up the street to his waiting car.

XXXXX

"Reid!" JJ cried worriedly when she saw him lying on the floor of Derek's office. "Reid, what happened?" She shook his several times before he sat up and brought his hand up to his sore, bruised face. The rest of the team had gathered and were looking both at Reid with concern and around the hallway for Derek.

Reid groaned in pain and said, "Morgan…he got a text and I wouldn't let him leave so he acted like he was sorry for yelling and acting irrational…then he just turned around and punched me!" He held his nose. "It really hurt!"

Rossi rubbed his head tiredly and looked at Hotch. "He's gone after him on his own. What the hell are we going to do now?"

"We're going to do what we can," Hotch replied. "And when he gets back he'll be in a lot of trouble."

"Guys," Emily said softly. "Are we entirely certain he will come back?" It was the question they were all wondering, but not brave enough to answer. "If he's going with the intention of getting Garcia out, are we sure he's not going to stay there to give her a chance to escape?"

The entire team looked at each other with skeptical and worried looks on their faces. As they did, Hotch got a text and groaned when he read it. "That's Strauss. She wants Rossi and me in her office. Now."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds or its characters.**

**Whew! Sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out. I also appreciate all the reviews and I'm sorry if I haven't gotten around to answering your reviews. Also, I know there were questions about Hotch saying Derek would be in trouble when they found him. When I said that I meant he would be in trouble with the higher ups (like Strauss!) Here's the newest installment!**

"Hello Erin," Rossi said coolly as he and Hotch entered their Section Chief's office. "You called us here." He fixed his dark eyes on Strauss' narrowed ones and crossed his arms over his chest. Hotch proceeded to sit down and urged Rossi silently to do the same.

"Yes, I did," she said. She leaned forward and folded her hands together. "Agent Hotchner, David. I just received a call from St. Thomas Hospital in DC. A man was shot in the foot by an 'Agent Morgan'. He reportedly demanded information on a kidnapping and when this man didn't give it, he was shot." She raised a brow at them. "Were you aware that one of your agents has 'gone rogue' so to speak?" Her stare was cool and unyielding as she glared at them. Neither man flinched, but they knew this would be bad for Derek. He'd shot someone while off duty, and worse, under orders to stay at the BAU.

He was going to be in some serious trouble with Strauss when he got back.

Hotch took a small, unnoticeable sigh and responded evenly, "We just found out he knocked out Dr. Reid while we were examining a scene related to Penelope Garcia's abduction. We're going to find him."

"Yes," she said sternly. "You will. We all look bad with Agent Morgan running around, shooting off toes. When you find him, you bring him back. You bring him _here_."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, if we find him and he has something of value to offer to the investigation, we'd like to keep him on board. Then you can suspend him," Hotch offered, trying to find a reasonable compromise for Strauss. And finding an even footing with Erin Strauss could be near impossible.

Rossi nodded. "After you look into the situation…fully," he tossed in.

Strauss scowled at both of them, particularly fixing her gaze on Rossi, who she shared a friendly sort of animosity with. "Very well," she said grudgingly and reluctantly. "But the moment he decides to pull his gun, he's coming back."

Hotch nodded. "We understand," he said hardly, rising from his seat. "We'll play it by the book." _Within reason_, he added silently in his head. The look he shared with Rossi said they were on the exact same page.

XXXXX

"Seth Astin?" Hotch asked brusquely as he entered the stark white hospital room where their suspect had his foot propped up on a pillow. JJ followed him inside.

The man on the bed was eating a cup of red Jello looked up and scowled. "Who the hell are you?" he grumbled, a small amount of gelatin dribbling down his chin. "What do you want?"

"Mr. Astin, I'm Agent Hotchner and this is Agent Jareau; we're with the FBI," he responded, showing his badge to Seth. "We're here to ask you about the man who shot you."

Seth rolled his eyes. "That crazy asshole? What do you want to know? Why he shot me maybe? Answer to that is _I don't know_!" He tossed the Jello cup away and opened a pudding cup, digging into that too.

Hotch and JJ exchanged a glance. "We need to know the specifics about his shooting you. Tell us what you know about Penelope Garcia's abduction."

Seth groaned. "I'll tell you what I told your Agent buddy," he growled. "I don't know anything about her. I was hired specifically to piss him off. I had no idea this woman was really kidnapped."

JJ spoke up. "So, you're telling me that you thought a man wanted you to just make fun of someone regarding a woman's disappearance?" she asked incredulously. "For fun?" She stared at him like he was crazy.

Nodding, he continued. "The guy who hired me was named Drake Melvin," he said. "I don't know a damn thing other than he was paying me well to taunt an Agent in the FBI about a woman being beaten and raped."

"And you thought that that was a way to earn a few dollars?" JJ spat in disgust.

Seth scowled at her. "Lady, I have to pay the bills somehow," he ground out. "I have to pay child support and feed myself."

"I wonder what your kid would think of your day job," Hotch grumbled. "Now, for a more serious matter. The charges. We're interested in making a deal with you."

He eyed them both warily. "Talk to me."

"You do have the option of pressing charges against Agent Morgan," Hotch said coldly. "But if you decide to do that, we'll get you for accessory to kidnapping." He watched Seth's eyes grow wider. "But my assumption is you don't want to do jail time for something you don't know anything about and something we can get you so easily convicted for. So, if you decide not to press charges against him, we'll make sure the worst you get is probation."

Seth seemed to ponder this before nodding slowly. "If you can guarantee me no jail, I'll not press charges against him. I can even tell you where he's going."

JJ nodded stiffly. "We're listening."

XXXXX

Penelope fell to the floor as her bonds were untied and she collapsed out of her chair to the concrete. She moaned in pain and looked up with her swollen eyes at the face of one of Harold's henchmen. He smiled ridiculously at her and she bowed her head, feeling completely dejected that there was little to no hope she would make it out of this alive. Her chances were dwindling as her body grew weaker with each beating she took. With her luck, she thought bitterly, she would die before she was in danger of Harold's grand finale. The henchman kicked her roughly in the ribs and she mumbled incoherently about the pain she was feeling.

"Please…" she whispered looking up, hoping her face would evoke sympathy in him.

"Believe me, I'm not interested," he hissed, kneeling down next to her and grabbing her hair to yank her head backwards. "So quit your begging."

He pushed her head back forward and she felt a few tears fall from her cheeks. Would she ever be rescued or was she doomed to die in the prison.

XXXXX

Derek looked up at the building the business card from Seth had led him to. He crumbled the card in his hand to a wad of paper. If this bastard knew anything about Penelope's whereabouts, he was going to tell him everything he knew or he would shoot his feet too. He knew his actions from hours before would not go unpunished, but he didn't care; he had to get Penelope out of captivity and healed.

Knocking on the door, he waited impatiently for an answer. When the door swung open to reveal a white man in his thirties covered in tattoos, smoking, and wearing rapper attire, he asked, "Drake Melvin?"

"Yeah?" he slurred. Derek could practically smell the alcohol on his breath from the doorway.

Without another word, he brought his fist up to clock him in the nose and leaned over his body that fell to the floor, clutching his bleeding face. "Tell me where Penelope is!"

**So short P/D sections, but I wanted to focus on the background stuff momentarily. Let me know your thoughts!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Here's the next chapter. Thanks again for the reviews guys! Now here's the chapter where Derek beats the shit out of one of Penelope's abductors :) I'm realizing as I write this that Derek is taking on Liam Neeson from 'Taken' qualities.**

"Jesus Christ!" Melvin shouted as he fell back inside his house. "What the hell is wrong with you, dude?" He tried to sit up but Derek put his foot on his chest and pushed him back down. Melvin tried to push his foot off his sternum, but he was so intoxicated it was fairly useless.

Derek gritted his teeth and glared viciously at Melvin. "You hired a man to find me and taunt me about Penelope," he said in a dangerous voice. "Where did you get the information about her? Who gave it to you? Or are you in on it?" He pushed his toe harder on the man's chest and glared at his scared face that was white with fear. "Speak you son of a bitch!" A ticking began in his jaw and he roared, "Tell me what you know!"

"Can I maybe get up first?" Melvin asked putting his hands up in surrender.

Grabbing him by his shirt collar, Derek pulled him up and slammed him into a wall. "You'd better say something good, or I'll be forced to shoot your foot the way I shot your little employee's."

Melvin's eyes widened and he gulped. He knew Derek was dead serious about his threat. "O-okay," he stuttered. "I was hired to help move your girl from Harold's apartment. I drugged her to keep her out until they got her to the final location. I shot her up with enough drugs to make sure she was so weak and unconscious they could easily control her. I swear to God that was all I did."

Derek removed his gun from its holster and put it to Melvin's temple. "You'd best think about swearing to _me_ because it may be the only thing that saves your life," he hissed.

"You're nuts!" Melvin said in fright. "You crazy bastard –"

"I'm the crazy bastard?" Derek hollered. "You kidnapped an innocent woman simply for a madman's revenge against me. He was after me! Me! Not Penelope!"

"I'm just a middleman," Melvin argued. "I do jobs to pay the bills."

"You do jobs to get money to fuel your drug and alcohol needs," Derek growled. "My job is to hunt down psychopaths like you. I can have you thrown in jail and make sure you stay there for a very, _very_ long time. So I suggest you cooperate with me and tell me where they took Penelope."

Melvin tried to throw up his hands in exasperation. "I don't know where she is! I just drugged her and took orders to have someone keep track of you and piss you off. I don't know a damn thing about anything."

As Derek studied his face, he realized that Melvin didn't know anything about Penelope's whereabouts. He was just a druggie who had helped Harold. Letting out a deep breath, he pushed the gun more into Melvin's temple and watched as he closed his eyes and trembled. "If I find out you're lying, you're going to wish you had never been born." Pulling him to a chair, he pulled his handcuffs from their clip on his belt and slipped it on Melivn's wrist; he then attached the other one to the chair. Putting his gun back in its place, he growled, "Tell me where to find Harold."

Melvin let out a yelp as Derek grabbed his head and yanked it forward. "Okay, I don't have a fucking clue where to find him, but I did meet up with them at the docks by the Potomac. They'd shoved her in a van and took her there. That's where I saw them last."

Pushing his chest roughly, Derek glared and said, "The cops will be here soon. Enjoy prison."

Ignoring his protests, he took the perp's phone because he knew the team would be monitoring his cell's activity. Dialing 911, he said as soon as the operator answered he said, "I have the location of Drake Melvin."

XXXXX

As Derek pulled into the private docks at eleven pm and got out, he listened to whatever sounds he could pick up. It was silent expect for the sound of the gentle rippling of the river. He pulled his gun out and moved stealthily through the buildings of boating equipment. He had no idea where he was supposed to start looking, so he would go systematically, building by building. The team was nowhere on his trail; he was somewhat sure of that. Unless they'd gotten a hold of Seth and in turn, Melvin.

If so, he'd have to hurry through his search.

Moving through the buildings, he discovered a trail of dried blood on the ground and he raised his gun and ran to follow it. The trail ended at two bodies that looked like they'd crawled a ways after being shot. They must have been dead since Penelope's abduction, judging by their skin coloring and the smell. Derek covered his face and went to the bodies, kneeling down to look at them more closely. He saw a phone poking out one of their pockets and he snatched it up greedily.

It had half battery life left.

Letting out a form of a relieved sigh, he hurried back to his car to find a safe place to go through the phone before his team found their way to the docks.

XXXXX

"Smile for the camera, darling!" Harold said brightly, holding up his phone to take pictures of her tied to her chair again.

"Fuck you," she spat weakly. Talking and breathing had become painful and her voice came out as a wheeze most of the time.

"You know?" he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "My boys have told me you're talking in your delirious state and that you've been saying 'Derek'…" he laughed. "It's pathetic, really."

"What's pathetic is your insistence on beating me without giving me an opportunity to fight back," she hissed. "Are you really that scared that I might struggle so much you can't beat me the way you want to?"

Her comment earned her a slap to the face. "How about a video?" he growled, bringing his phone up again and pressing the record button. Over his shoulder, he called, "Untie her." The man came over and untied her. Her wrists were sore and red. He grabbed her by the chin and kissed her crudely and she tried exerting all her strength to driving her fist into his abdomen. At least she could make him groan in pain. The worst part was it took the remainder of her strength from her.

"Hit her," Harold said cruelly.

"With pleasure," he snapped, clutching his gut in pain. He landed a smack to her face and she fell from her chair to the ground. "That feel good, bitch?" he hissed. "Feel that? It's the feeling of you losing everything. Mainly your life. Feel it draining from your body?"

She looked up at him and then spit at his feet. "Then what are you waiting for, you asshole?" she growled angrily. "An invitation? Are you too cowardly to kill me now?"

As he raised his foot to deliver a crushing blow to her abdomen, Harold halted him. "We're not done with her yet," he reminded him. "She needs to be alive when Agent Morgan gets here. If she's dead, sure he'll be devastated, but not as devastated if she dies right in front of him and he was powerless to stop us." Penelope began to laugh and the two men looked at her harshly. "What the hell are you laughing at you stupid bitch?" Harold snarled.

She shook her head. "He'll kill you," she murmured. "You're right; I won't live after this. But you won't kill Derek. He'll get you. And then you'll wish you'd never been born."

"We'll just see about that," Harold rumbled.

XXXXX

After Drake Melvin had been taken into custody, the team had gone to the docks where he'd directed them and looked around. Derek had most likely been there as Melvin had told him where to go, but there was no proof.

"Shit," Rossi said under his breath as he stumbled upon the two bodies. "Hotch!" he called. "We've got bodies." Looking more closely at them, he breathed out a sigh of relief. Derek couldn't have killed these men; they'd been dead for several days by the looks of it. Hotch arrived and looked at both bodies.

"Get CSI over here," he said, kneeling down to get a closer look at the bodies. "They look like they were just expendables," he added. He looked at the pockets of their jackets and cursed. If they'd had phones, Derek took them. When the forensics made it to the bodies, Hotch moved back to consult with the rest of the team.

"Anything over there?" Prentiss asked.

Rossi shook his head. "Nothing," he said tiredly. "He took the phones that the two of them probably had. We need to try Melvin again. Get his phone records. I want to see every call he's made since Harold appeared in Garcia's life."

Hotch nodded in agreement. "If we don't get anything from those, we're going to be stuck unless Derek finds someone else and leaves them for us to bring in."


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I own nothing :(**

**Here's the newest installment! Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed :)**

Derek sat in the Super 8 Motel room he'd rented with cash to look through the phone he'd taken off one of the bodies at the docks. He sipped his coffee, trying to keep himself awake. It had been many days without sleep for him and he was trying to make sure his eyes remained open. The clock had struck two thirty in the morning only moments ago and he had driven around an hour after the docks, trying to find a place far enough away for digging through the phone. He started looking through the text messages.

He frowned the entire time he searched. The perp he'd taken the phone off of had used it for his personal phone and apparently had a family that was looking for him. Half the texts came from two sons and a wife and the other half came from people he was working for. There was a plethora of texts from a certain number: _719-334-8659._

_**Yo, I've got a job.**_

**Talk to me.**

_**I need a woman moved. Getting back at the SOB who killed my brother.**_

**What do you need?**

_**Place to stash her. Well-hidden, no windows.**_

**I've got just what you need.**

The texts had been sent two weeks before his birthday. When he thought about it, he realized Penelope had been in Harold's sights for a long time. Derek's fists clenched together and he continued scrolling down the texts to ones sent just two days before Penelope's abduction.

_**Things progressing well enough?**_

**Yep. We've got the place all set.**

_**Where is it?**_

**Up near the Boston Docks.**

_**Great. Where do we want to meet up?**_

**We'll have to meet up at the docks. I can get you everything there.**

There were no more texts between the two numbers and Derek slammed his fist on the table in front of him. Grinding his teeth together, he rose from his seat and began to pace. Harold was most certainly the number that had been demanding the hiding place. Grabbing the phone again, he hit dial angrily and waited as the phone rang. His eyes were burning with both anger and frustration. With the phone still to his ear, he passed a mirror and wasn't surprised to find his face looking terrible. His eyes were bloodshot, his five o'clock shadow from two days ago was spread all over his face, and his clothing was wrinkled. The phone continued to ring and he was almost ready to throw it out the window until someone picked up. "Who is this?" Harold's voice snapped.

Derek's face stretched into a smirk. "Harold," he said. "Bet you weren't expecting to have me call you."

There was some hesitation on Harold's end of the line. "Agent Morgan," he said, trying to keep his voice neutral. "How'd you like my little messenger?" He let out a chuckle. "Did he drive you _crazy_?"

"Oh, absolutely crazy," Derek growled through gritted teeth. "And he squealed like crazy when his foot got shot off. He squealed _so_ loudly that he let the name of Drake Melvin slip."

Harold was silent another moment. "Who?" he tried to deflect.

"You heard me," Derek hissed. "Drake Melvin. And he told me exactly what he did for you. How he shot Penelope up with drugs to keep her knocked out. He told me about the docks and do you know who I found there?" There was another moment of silence. "That's right," he said. "I found your two little expendables. And then, I'm going to find you. _You_, you son of a bitch."

Laughing, Harold said, "Then I'll see you soon, I guess. Until then, how about a little homemade video…" The other end of the line went dead and a text rang in on Derek's own cell phone. Taking a deep breath, he picked up the phone and looked at the **1 New Message**. He didn't want to open it at all, but there was a chance that with a video there would be more visible and a better chance of finding out a location. Derek pressed the **View** button and braced himself. He watched as Harold's form towered over Penelope's battered body. Tears trickled from his eyes and down his cheeks.

"Oh, Baby Girl," he murmured. One of Harold's fellow unsubs proceeded to hit her over and over under Harold's order. The jeers and taunts at her stabbed at Derek as well and at the end he was almost too mad to think. It wasn't until he heard her speak that he could hear through the haze of his anger.

"_He'll kill you," _Penelope's voice said on the video recording. _"You're right; I won't live after this. But you won't kill Derek. He'll get you. And then you'll wish you'd never been born."_

When the video finished, the final frame rested on a set of boxes just above Penelope's head. He covered his mouth and choked on a gasp. The writing was difficult to make out on the boxes, but it appeared to look like _Boston Seafood Shipping Inc._ His face looked up at the wall randomly and he felt energized immediately. A clue to finding Penelope.

Wiping his face of any remnants of tears, Derek pulled his jacket back on and got ready to make the journey to the Boston docks. He was going to find Penelope if it was the last thing he did.

XXXXX

"I thought you said you took the phones off of them when we killed them!" Harold was hissing to one of the men around the room. "Now that he has one, he might find us! Do you know what he'll do to us if he finds us?" Penelope was lying on the ground against the wall, her whole body feeling like she'd been run over with a truck. She was looking up at the men who were arguing in front of her.

"Dude, I'm just here to guard the door!"

"Derek Morgan isn't going to see it that way! He'll kill you no matter what!" he growled. The man he was talking to was turning paler and paler every second.

Penelope let out a weak snicker. "You'll all die," she ground out from her seat. She tried sitting up straighter and looked at both the men with a smirk. "You won't last two seconds if he makes it here."

Harold laughed and headed towards her. She glared up at him and didn't relent with her look. He got down on his knees to kneel in front of her. His hand stroked her cheek and she tried to rub her head in the opposite direction. Instead he brought his other hand over her cheek and squeezed tightly. "You're terrible, Penelope," he cooed. "You just never know when to stop talking do you?"

She tried to smile wryly, but her face hurt to do it successfully. "I always have something to say," she said.

"Derek is going to be so proud of his Baby Girl," he said sweetly. "You're such a little fighter."

"Yeah," she hissed. "I am." Using as much strength as she could muster, she slammed her fists into his chest. He let out a groan and she smiled internally. Jumping to her feet, she sprinted forward in a fit of adrenaline. Her weakness made it so she was caught before she was half-way across the room. Harold grabbed her roughly and pushed her against the wall until her head slammed against the concrete. The force against her skull made her head begin to spin. She let out a groan and her vision became blurry with gray stars.

"Feel that, bitch?" he growled in her ear. "I hope that's a lesson to you not to try and run again. Next time you try to run, I'm letting the boys have their way with you. Understand?"

She couldn't respond as she slid down the wall to the floor, unconscious before her body fell limply in a heap.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Here's the next installment! I know you guys want to see Derek kill Harold and his henchmen…worry not! They'll get what's coming to them. Cheers :) Oh! and Shemar Moore's official website airs at midnight Pacific time! Go check it out: **

"Victims at the docks were a Richard Slater and Bryce Richards," Emily said, showing records and mug shots to Hotch and the rest of the team. "Slater is a multiple offender due to heroin. Richards…" She gulped past a tight lump in her throat. "…did fifteen years for gang-rape." Her voice had grown extremely quiet.

The whole round table room had gone silent and the whole team retreated inwards for a moment. None of them could even begin to contemplate such an act happening to Penelope. Hotch was the first to speak. "Okay," he said. "We need to check their phone records. There may be information on them. Morgan likely took them with him. Reid, get a tech to trace all their records. We need to hurry if we want to get Garcia out."

_And if we want to stop Morgan from killing them all,_ he added silently to himself.

XXXXX

"Here's the room," Rossi said. He and Reid had gone to a hole-in-the-wall hotel where the manager had quickly identified Derek's picture and where the phone's GPS had led them to.

Reid shook his head in confusion. "This isn't like Morgan at all," he said as Rossi unlocked the door. "He's rational, not impulsive. He never ran off on his own, even when we were looking for Billy Flynn in LA. I thought I'd never see him more angry than that case. I guess I was wrong." They went through the doorway into the simply furnished room.

"They took the woman he loves," Rossi said, moving through the room to the desk. "This time it's extremely personal. I doubt we'll ever see this behavior again…unless some other fool tries to take Garcia." He glanced into the trash can by the desk and leaned down to reach into the not yet emptied trash bin; the house-keeping hadn't yet gotten to the room.

"Find it?" Reid asked.

Rossi nodded. "Here it is." He produced the phone from the waste basket. He handed it over to Reid. "Have a look at it, Boy Wonder," he said. "See if you can find any clues in it. I'll call Hotch and let him know we found it."

"Okay," Reid said, scrolling into the text messages and reading them at his incredibly fast rate.

The phone started to ring in Rossi's ear and Hotch answered in his usual clipped tone. "Hotchner."

"Hotch, we've got the phone," Rossi explained. "Reid's going through it as we speak."

"Anything?" Hotch asked anxiously.

Rossi looked to Reid and raised an eyebrow at him. Nodding, Reid said, "Yeah. The docks in Boston. They've taken her to the Boston docks. We should try and track this number that appears to belong to Harold."

"Boston docks," Rossi barked into the receiver.

"As soon as you get back, we're wheels up," Hotch ordered.

XXXXX

Hotch's phone rang as they were on the jet, heading to Boston to find Penelope and Derek. He answered it swiftly and groaned inwardly when the voice spoke through the other end of the line. "Aaron," Strauss began, "you're on your way to Boston I hear."

"That's right, ma'am," he answered. "We found a phone belonging to one of the dock victims, Richard Slater and –"

"Did Agent Morgan kill someone?" she asked coldly.

Hotch rolled his eyes. "No," he responded snippily. "The bodies we found had been dead for days. The ME said probably for several days. Our guess is when our TA was taken."

Strauss sighed over the phone. "Aaron, make sure you bring them back in one piece," she said. "Despite what you and your team believe, I don't want Agent Morgan to be fired and sent to jail. He's a valuable asset to your team."

Somehow Hotch didn't believe her, but he decided to respond anyway. "Okay ma'am."

XXXXX

Derek arrived in Boston early in the morning after driving all through the night. He'd stopped once to get gas and coffee to stay awake while he drove. He knew as soon as he arrived in Boston he wouldn't need to have caffeine; he would be able to run on the desire to save Penelope. His mind was racing at a million miles an hour and he was feeling an impending sense of doom. What if she was dead when he found them? What if Harold had gone through with his threat to let his henchmen rape her?

The thoughts raging in his head were excruciating. It was physically hurting him and making each beat of his heart shake his body.

He parked his car in a side lot behind a restaurant building. It was only a short walk away from the docks and he was going to get their as fast as he could. His first stop was going to be where the seafood shipping company would be.

As he walked into the giant metal shipping crates, he pulled his gun from his side and made sure to have it on guard. He was going to be prepared for anything. Making his way silently through the crates, he hurried to find the exact company logo he'd seen in the pictures he'd been sent.

Suddenly a vibrating came from his pocket, signaling a text. His blood went cold in his veins and he pulled the phone out to check it. It was another photo, this time of Penelope lying on the floor, unconscious and a small trail of blood down the wall. Underneath it was a caption:

**Better hurry, Agent…Baby Girl's got little time left…**

Dropping the phone on the ground and stomping on it so it broke, he said silently to himself, _Hang on, Baby Girl. I'm almost there._

XXXXX

Penelope's eyes fluttered open and there was a vicious pounding in her head that just wouldn't quit. She groaned and heard an evil laugh. She looked up through her blurry vision and found Harold smirking at her. "You just don't know when to quit, do you?" he snickered. "You're not dead are you?"

"Fuck off," she hissed. For her snap she received another kick to the jaw and more blood filled her mouth. Tears filled her eyes as the pain exploded through her. Harold just laughed.

"You're about to be in a whole world of hurt now," he hissed. "I'll be letting my boys have at you now." She gulped. He was right; her life was about to end. He started to unbuckle his belt and he said maliciously, "And it's all going to start with me."

Penelope started to try and wiggle away from his menacing form. "Stay the hell away from me," she croaked through her bloody mouth.

"Not. Likely."

As he grabbed her neck and pulled her towards him, she struggled until both of them heard gunshots right outside the door to her prison. Harold shot up and pulled his gun from the back of his pants. "What now?" he growled. There was another gunshot and the door was pulled open, revealing Penelope had been locked in some form of a shipping box. Harold laughed and grabbed her by the hair, pushing her to her knees and held the gun to her temple. "Hello there," he said.

"Let her the fuck go!" Derek roared and advanced into the crate.

**Just a quick FYI: I don't know what those giant shipping boxes that they use huge cranes to lift are actually called. I'm going for the crates like the ones that family hid in on episode 1-21. Just wanted to let you all know!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Here's the next chapter…sorry about the cliffhanger at the last one :) Anyway, hope this will make up for it! Thanks also for the reviews! FYI: I'm going to start with the part before Derek bursts into the crate. Also, there are so slightly graphic descriptions in this one.**

The moment Derek caught sight of someone, he made sure to hide behind a crate to see who it was. It was clearly someone who knew Harold because he had a gun posed out like Derek had a moment ago. "Where's Penelope?" Derek hollered at him, holding his gun out at him.

The other man posed his gun at him and said, "You're not going to find her!"

"Wanna bet?" Derek shot back.

A gunshot rang out and Derek ducked out of the way behind a crate before shooting back and hitting him in the shoulder. He dropped to the ground and Derek ran forward to find more of them. The blood in his veins was burning and his adrenaline was making his heart race at a million miles an hour. Ahead of him in the dimness of the shipping crates he made out another figure. "Where is she?" he shouted, letting out a warning shot past the man's ear.

It didn't matter how much noise he was making or what kind of attention he would attract; everything was about finding Penelope.

He whirled around and glared at Derek and yelled back, "Wouldn't you like to know!" He shot at Derek and blatantly missed and Derek tackled him to the concrete, using the butt of his gun to slam into the other man's skull. He spat in his face and jumped up and continued on.

He came to a giant crate that the door to was guarded by two. They looked up from the ground where they were crouching with their guns aimed and ready to shoot, but Derek didn't hesitate; they were dead in seconds. His heart leapt with some form of relief.

He'd found the prison Penelope was in.

XXXXX

"Derek!" Penelope cried when she saw him enter the room. Anguish filled her heart. If Derek was here he was either going to end up severely injured or dead. Harold wouldn't give up until either of the two options happened.

Derek had his gun leveled and aimed it at Harold. "Let her go, Talbot," he spat. "I'm here now. You can kill _me_ now."

Struggling against Harold's grip, she screamed, "Derek, no!"

Harold laughed. "Come any closer Agent Morgan and I'll blow her brains all over this place," he said pushing the gun further into her temple. "Put the gun down or it'll happen." Derek didn't move immediately, but when he saw how serious Harold was, his jaw ticked uncomfortably and he held his hands up in surrender, kneeling down to put the gun on the ground. "Much better," Harold said with a smirk. "Agent Morgan with his back in a corner. It's making me very happy."

"Let her go or I swear to God you won't like it when I get my hands on your neck," Derek growled. He saw how scared Penelope was and he knew he had to handle the next moves he made carefully. She looked insane with fear. She was shaking her head at him, trying to tell him not to keep doing what he was doing.

"I wouldn't worry too much about her," he said. "I'll not be killing her. She'll be alive after _you're_ dead. The worst she'll experience is excruciating emotional pain from these traumatic events. And that will just be freaking funny."

"That won't be happening because this will be ending with a bullet in your brain," Derek hissed.

"No, this is going to end with my brother being avenged!" Harold roared. "You're going to be dead, Agent! Dead!"

"No, Harold please!" Penelope cried. "Don't hurt him. Just kill me! Don't hurt him!"

"Shut up, bitch!" he yelled, bashing her in the head with his gun. She fell to the ground with a cry and Derek was pained, wanting to rush to her side, but he didn't want to risk getting her killed. "This is my time to avenge my brother and _he_ is going to be dead!" Pulling Penelope by the hair to growl in her ear, "And you're going to watch every moment of his death." He shoved her to the ground again and advanced towards Derek.

Derek tried to reach for his gun, but Harold shot at the space next to his hand. "No gun, you son of a bitch. I wann beat you to death with my bare hands."

"Alright," Derek growled. "You're a deadman!" He got up from the ground and launched himself at Harold with all his strength behind him. His rage was blinding him, making all rational thought abandon him. He was seeing red, deep crimson red. His veins were on fire, burning viciously through his system. "You touch the woman I love and you think I'll let you get away with it?" he roared, landing a punch to Harold's face. "You think you can beat her and I won't take away your life?"

Harold laughed and got Derek in the gut with his foot, kicking him so hard he fell backwards. He let out a groan and immediately shot forward again. A sweat had broken out all over his body and he hit him Harold in the jaw. They wrestled on the ground, both of them using their fists to tell each other exactly how they felt about the other.

"Stop!" Penelope screamed, fear for Derek's life running rampant in her mind. Her heart was in a standstill. Everything was too loud. Everything was too vivid for her vision. If anything happened to Derek because of her, she'd never forgive herself. "Stop!" She crawled in the direction of the fight to try and stop them. Every bone in her body was screaming in pain, but Harold on top of Derek, punching him to a pulp helped her to dull the pain. She grabbed Harold's ankle and gave it a yank, but one quick jerk of his ankle snapped her wrist, a whole new wave of agony washing over her. Another scream escaped her mouth and her arm shot back. She clutched her wrist. The skin had already begun to turn purple and the skin was ripped so a slight bit of bone was protruding.

The scream that escaped her mouth made Derek's body jump into overdrive. He kicked Harold solidly in the gut and it sent him flying backwards. Harold lay on the ground a moment and gave Derek a moment to look at Penelope. His nose was covered in blood and his left eye was already starting to blacken. All his features were concerned and he held out his hand to take Penelope's. "Penelope? Are you able to get out of here? You need to get out!"

She shook her head. "I'm not leaving without you!" she sobbed, clutching her wrist. "I won't do it! If you think I would do that –"

His face turned furious all of the sudden. How could Penelope even think about this? She had to get herself out of there…even if it meant abandoning him. "Penelope! You need to get out of here now! I swear – NO!" he roared. Derek hadn't seen Harold rising from the ground and bringing a crowbar down on Penelope's ankle. He jumped from the ground to tackle Harold as he dropped the crowbar. Now Penelope wouldn't be able to get out unless she was able to crawl the whole way out. Her cries of pain led him to be even more furious as he smashed his fist into Harold's windpipe. Harold's face went red as the air rushed from his lungs and he choked. The feeling of hitting Harold was satisfying to Derek; he felt complete for a moment, like he'd taken care of a hunger he'd had for years.

It filled him with a sense of completion; the only thing that would make it better was if he killed Harold.

Derek raised his fist to get Harold in the neck again, a blinding fire of a pain overtook his abdomen and his hand went to the pained area, coming away bloody. His heart sank.

Harold had stabbed him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Here's the next installment. Sorry I left you all hanging with the last one! No worries, I'm not killing Derek :) Thanks for the reviews, by the way.**

The moment Penelope saw the burst of crimson spread across Derek's torso she felt herself unravel at the seams. She let out a terrible shriek. Harold was looming over Derek again with his knife raised over him, ready to strike again. It was a huge hunting knife and it had been lodged in his gut, coming away slick with blood. His face went wide with shock as he registered what trauma had just occurred to his body. A sputtering breath escaped his mouth and he fell backwards onto the ground, his body hitting the crate's bottom hard.

"Derek!"

"Feel that _Agent Morgan_?" Harold hissed, plunging his knife into Derek again. "The feeling of death so close? That's the feeling Henry went through after you shot him!"

Tears were pouring down Penelope's face and she screamed again, "Harold stop! Please stop!" She crawled forward on her chest ignoring the searing pain in her ankle that wouldn't end. Her eyes were drifting around the room in an attempt to find something to stop Harold from killing Derek. It was then her eyes caught sight of Derek's gun. The glock was lying where it had been dropped and instinctively she made her way towards the gun. Her face was set in furious frown and she gritted her teeth as her ankle hit a piece of piping. She let out a whimper and looked up to see Derek being stabbed again and receiving a punch to the face. It was enough incentive for her to keep pushing herself forward, despite the pain she was feeling. When her fingers grasped the cold metal, she pulled herself up on her knees and shouted, "Stop what you're doing, you evil son of a bitch or I'll shoot you!"

Harold stopped what he was doing and looked up at her to smirk. "You'll shoot me?" he asked skeptically. He tilted his head to the side and shook it, laughing in the process. "You don't have the guts to do it."

She forced herself to stand and she cried, "I do. And if he dies I'll make sure you are killed in the worst way possible. The absolute. Worst. Way. Possible." She glared at him viciously and she knew her look was withering to him this time. Her body was on fire from both pain and fear, but also revenge. This man had taken her hostage and was killing the man she loved. He wasn't going to get away with it. Not if she could help it. "Back away from Derek and walk towards me."

Harold laughed and rose from the ground, putting his hands in the air in surrender. "Okay, you little spitfire," he snickered. "Okay. We'll have it your way." He came towards her slowly, making sure to be deliberate with every move he made. "What're you going to do, Penelope? Make me pay? Make me sorry for deceiving you, for hurting you, for hurting your precious Derek?"

Her eyes shot to Derek's gasping form on the ground. He was clutching his stomach and shaking violently. His own eyes met Penelope's and he appeared terrified. "Penelope," he gasped.

Stifling a sob, she shook her head and turned her attention back to Harold. "On your knees," she told him, pointing the gun to the floor.

He knelt down and smiled. "It doesn't' matter if you kill me now," he said simply, his voice nonchalant. "There is nothing left for me in the world. I have had my revenge. And you know that he will die. He's not going to make it out of this and you know that or a fact! You will be left alone to deal with this pain. You will wither away until there is nothing left of you but a thin scrap of yourself." His face was set in a very clear smirk.

Penelope let out a vicious screech and fired, hitting him in the middle of the forehead. He slumped to the ground with a smile on his face. She kicked him in the face despite the fact he was dead already. Sobbing now, she rushed to Derek's side and fell to her knees, her hands and arms shaking violently as she put her hands and arms on his abdomen to put pressure on his wounds.

"Oh Derek!" she cried, making sure to put all her strength behind her arms. "You need to stay with me! You hear? You have to. I won't survive without you." She couldn't halt her sobbing and she couldn't stop the blood that was staining her skin and seeping through her fingers. His eyes were wide and his body began to shake; his breathing had sped up as he gasped and a small amount of blood began to trickle down the side of his face. "You have to stay alive because I love you! I love you, okay? I want to marry you and I want to have your babies. I want us to grow old together and watch our grandchildren run around our huge house we're going to have. So you have to stay alive."

He held out his hand for her to grasp and she squeezed it tightly. "I…I lo-love you, Baby Girl," he choked out hoarsely. "You ha-have to move on…I wi-will always be with y-you."

"No!

His eyes fluttered shut and his head lolled to the side as Penelope screamed her despair. As she was doing so, there was the sound of thundering footsteps and the SWAT agents burst into the crate with their guns poised and ready if necessary. Hotch and Rossi were next in and they saw Derek and Penelope. "Call a medic!" Rossi cried into a walkie-talkie. He and Hotch knelt down next to Penelope and Rossi called out, "Emily, get in here and take her! She's too badly hurt to be doing this."

Penelope struggled against their grips. "Let me go!" she cried. "You can't take me from him!"

Emily pulled her into her arms and shushed her. "Penelope, the medics are going to get him fixed up, but you also need to be looked at. You're hurt too."

Bawling, Penelope slumped against Emily and said, "Please! You have to save him. I can't go on without him. I love him!"

Stroking her hair, Emily murmured, "I know you do."

Sirens blared out and several paramedics burst into the crate as well, several of them going to Derek, the rest of them to Penelope. "Miss, what is your name?" one of them asked, taking her uninjured wrist to check her pulse.

"Derek?" she whimpered. "Is Derek okay?" She was frantic with worry and she looked at the man with bloodshot eyes.

"Miss, we have to take care of you," he said loudly but calmly. "What is your name?"

"Penelope," she wept, looking at Derek again. "You have to let me go to him!" She tried to escape again to crawl to him, but was grabbed again by the upper arms. "Let me go!"

"Garcia stop!" Emily said with her voice trying to keep her from running away. "You will just get in the way and they have to help him. They're going to work their hardest to patch him up, but you need to stay calm."

Feral instinct was taking over Penelope and she continued to struggle against the grips of the three people now holding her. The paramedics had asked Emily to move aside so they could examine Penelope. "Her pulse is racing, she got a severely broken ankle and snapped wrist. Lots of internal bleeding and several head injuries, one of which could be serious. She's taken a serious beating." They looked down at her filthy skirt and examined her thighs through the ripped fabric. "There's also some finger-shaped bruising on her inner thighs?" The female medic looked at her gently and asked, "Penelope? Were you sexually assaulted?"

Penelope shook her head and wept harder. "He tried," she stuttered. "He didn't. Derek – Derek stopped him."

"Penelope we need to get you onto a stretcher," the other medic said. "We have to get you to the hospital. You're in a very serious medical state right now."

She glared ferociously at him. "Take care of Derek first!" she screamed. "You have to help him first!"

"He's being taken care of," he told her. "Right now, worry about you."

Penelope was about to respond with a snappy, nasty retort, but as she opened her mouth to speak, the words got muddled and she passed out before saying what was on her mind.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Thank you guys so much for the reviews! I love reading them. Sorry about leaving you all hanging with the last one…had to keep you on your toes :) Here goes the next one.**

"_He's crashing," the surgeon said as he and his fellow doctors worked to stop the bleeding that was occurring in their patient. He'd been stabbed multiple times with a large knife that should've killed him instantly, but there was a fighting spirit in him that was keeping him hanging on by a thin thread of hope. Whoever had stabbed him had wanted to inflict the worst pain possible. At the moment though his heart rate was dropping and the panels were brought out to shock him back to normal._

"_Charging three hundred," another doctor said, putting the panels on the patient's chest and starting the machine. He gave a jerk and came off the table as the shock ran through his body. The monitor bleeped to life briefly, but immediately dropped again and the surgeons were forced to charge the panels again._

"_Again! We're losing him!"_

_They shocked him again and this time he stayed with them, the monitor showing that he was back. Work on his stabs immediately resumed and the head surgeon cursed. "We've got another bleeder," he said. He held out his arm to a nurse and snapped shortly, "Clamp."_

"_Dr. Roberts, we've been asked for an update," a nurse said, pushing the door to the OR open and poking her head in with a mask covering her face._

"_Tell them I'll send one of the residents out in a moment," the doctor hollered. "We're kind of busy here." The nurse nodded and left. "It's shocking this guy is still alive," he muttered. "At the moment he's going to need a miracle if he wants to make it through this. He's going to need a guardian angel."_

XXXXX

Hotch paced around the hospital's waiting room, his hands wringing together in anxiety. Both Penelope and Derek had been rushed to surgery upon arrival to the ER, Penelope for severe internal bleeding and Derek for his stab wounds. He remembered very vividly the scene that had been before his eyes only hours ago. Derek had been on the ground, bleeding profusely from his abdomen and it was clear he'd taken a beating. Penelope had been screaming, her face ferocious as she fought against the hold of Emily to stay at his side. Harold's body was lying on the ground, a bullet lodged in his brain and a ghostly smile plastered on his face.

It was worse than any of the crime scenes he saw on a regular basis.

The rest of the team members were off in their own worlds, trapped in their minds in different ways. Emily sat slumped over, her elbows on her knees and her face buried in her hands; JJ was quietly crying in a chair, explaining to Will over the phone what had happened; Reid was staring off into space, his face showing he was clearly in a world of contemplation; Rossi was holding a rosary with his eyes closed and mouthing silent prayer.

A clicking of heels could be heard coming down the hall and Hotch looked down the corridor to see Erin Strauss coming towards him. She fixed him with a hard look and halted. Using her index finger, she motioned for him to come towards her so they could talk in private. He sighed and went over to her and awaited the storm to come.

"Ma'am," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Strauss let out a heavy sigh. "Aaron, I need to know what happened in there," she said. "This could be very bad for Agent Morgan."

Hotch shook his head. "We can easily do things to help him," he explained. "I'm not saying that we can keep him off a suspension; he very clearly disobeyed orders, but he didn't murder anyone. Forensics support self-defense. Gun residue was found on the hands of all the men he shot."

She cocked her head to the side. "And what about Penelope?" she asked, her voice even softer. "Did she shoot Harold? Execution style maybe?"

This was the question he didn't want to answer for fear it might cause suspicion from some higher ups. Harold's body position showed he'd been shot execution style, but he was confident he would be able to help her as well. The emotional and physical trauma she'd endured was enough to claim self-defense as well. "Self-defense as well," he said. "Harold beat her within an inch of her life and he would have killed Morgan if she hadn't stopped him."

Strauss stared at him and looked reluctant to speak. Eventually she gave another sigh. "Alright Aaron," she said. "You'll be hearing from me later. Right now let's just get your people healed." She turned to leave, but stopped and turned again. "There will have to be repercussions, there's nothing I can do to stop those. Agent Morgan assaulted a fellow federal agent and shot a civilian."

Hotch shook his head again. "Seth Astin isn't going to press charges in exchange for no jail time," he explained.

"We'll discuss more later," she exhaled before leaving down the hallway again.

XXXXX

"_This woman took one hell of a beating," an OR nurse muttered. "The son of a bitch who did this to her should be shot."_

"_He was," the head surgeon said. "She got him straight in the forehead. This woman went through hell and back. The paramedics said she refused to leave the man's side that was stabbed." He groaned. "Oh shit, we've got a bleeder. Scratch that, two bleeders! Clamp!" The whole of the OR was rushing around to save the woman on the table._

"_We're losing her," one of the resident doctors said with a shake of her head. "There's too much bleeding."_

"_We need more O neg STAT!"_

_"I've got it right here," one of the nurses said, hooking it up to the IV line._

"_God, where is all this blood coming from?"_

_The head surgeon shook his head. "This woman needs a guardian angel to get through this now," he said._


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: Though I love it dearly and would totally put Morgan and Garcia together, I do not own Criminal Minds :(**

**I must apologize profusely for not updating sooner! I have exams this week at school and if I don't study AP Bio I'm gonna fail. AP Lit, no problem :) Anyways, please read and review!**

JJ sat by Penelope's bedside, her head in her hands as she looked at her unconscious best friend. She looked so frail in her weakened state, her body looking like a truck had run over it. The doctors had been able to pull her through surgery, but her condition was extremely critical. In addition to the massive internal bleeding she'd sustained, several of her ribs were broken, her jaw had almost been broken, and her wrist and ankle were shattered.

Harold Talbot had put her through hell. And she'd reemerged from it.

"Garcia," she murmured. "You have to wake up. You have to wake up for Henry. He'll miss his Auntie Pen if you don't come back to us. And us. The team can't survive without you. We love you so much. You bring light to our lives in the darkness that surrounds this damn job. We won't make it without you and your crazy banter with Morgan, your wild outfits. We'll not make it." Tears rolled down her cheeks and she sniffled. "So you have to wake up."

XXXXX

Penelope's eyes fluttered open and she was sitting in her wild and wacky apartment. She was on her couch, staring at the walls. On her Super 8 roll she could see herself lying on a hospital bed, her face beaten to a pulp and her body bruised all over. JJ sat by her bedside with tears running down her cheeks and her head in her hands.

"Oh, Jayje," she murmured, rising from her seat and going to the screen.

"Penelope…" The voice sounded distinctly familiar. Though she hadn't heard it for a very long time, she remembered exactly who it belonged to.

Turning around, she saw her mother standing in front of her, her eyes warm as the last time she'd seen her. "Mom?" she gasped. "Mom, what am I doing here? What is this? How can I see JJ?" Her breathing grew erratic and her mother came towards her, putting her hands on Penelope's arms in a soothing gesture. "What is going on?"

"You're in a state of dreams," her mother explained. "You're still alive, but you're trapped here."

"Trapped here? For how long?" Terror began to flood through her body and she started to shake violently. Tears flooded her eyes and she gripped her mother's arms. So many questions were running through her mind. "Mom," she whispered softly. "Are you mad at me? For causing your death? And Dad? Is that why he's not here?"

Her mother smiled sadly at her. She put her hand on her cheek to comfort her. "Oh honey," she murmured with compassion. "Of course we don't blame you for what happened to us. You are in no way responsible for the man who did kill us. That is in no way your fault. The reason your father isn't here is because I'm the manifestation of who you needed most right now. But don't you ever think that we blame you. We're your parents and we love you." Without another word she pulled her into a tight hug and Penelope responded with a crushing embrace back.

"Mom?" she asked tearfully. "How do I get back to Der – how do I get back to the world? I love seeing you, but there are people I need to get back to. People who need me."

Her mother nodded somberly and all of the sudden JJ and her own beaten body disappeared from the screen to reveal Derek in surgery. The doctors were using a pair of panels and attempting to shock him back to life. She let out a cry of despair and covered her mouth with her hand. "He's fading quickly," her mother said dejectedly. "Without something to live for, he won't make it back from death. He won't return."

Penelope's eyes shot to the image of Derek on the OR table and she whispered, "I have to get back to him, Mom. I have to give him a reason to come back. I have to save him!"

Slowly her mother's body began to fade and her voice was growing quieter by the second. "You have to find the way back to him then," she said. "Use your love to guide you."

"How do I get out?" she asked frantically. "What do I have to do?"

"You must find your own way out," she said as her body faded to nothing. Only her voice remained after that. "I love you, Penelope."

"MOM!" she screamed when her voice died away. She fell to her knees and wept into her hands, wondering how the hell she was going to get out of the place she currently found herself in.

XXXXX

Fran Morgan started on her second cup of coffee as she sat next to her son. He had come out of surgery only an hour ago after being in it for twelve long hours. He was now in a coma the doctors had no idea he might come out of. She always knew her son was brave, but she never thought something like this would happen to him. Penelope Garcia, the one woman he'd talked about with love in his voice and his eyes, was also in a state of critical condition and Fran wondered if she was ever going to get to meet the love of her son's life. It was up in the air about whether or not she would survive as well.

"Derek baby," she whispered. "Come back to me. Introduce me to the one woman who captured your heart and has made you the honest, courageous man you are. Wake up so you can live to fight for the lives of people who can't."

XXXXX

Derek let out a groan and opened his eyes. He frowned at his surroundings. The last thing he remembered was being in the shipping crate Harold Talbot had been keeping Penelope hostage in. Now he found himself standing in his office at the BAU.

"What hell am I doing here?" he wondered aloud.

"Last time we talked you weren't cussing yet."

Derek whirled around to see his father standing right beside him. "_Dad_?" he said hoarsely. "What – how?"

His father laughed and came forward to clap him on the shoulder. "This is all in your head, son," he said with a depressed tone to his voice. "You've come through a long battle for your life. Now you've got to fight your way back to it. You've got a woman who loves you waiting for you. Your mother and sisters too. You have to get back to them."

Penelope came into his mind and he rubbed the top of his head. She'd been so hurt, her body broken when he'd found her. He wanted nothing more than to shield her from it. Taking away the pain for her was all he could think about. "Dad, it's all my fault," he muttered. "I killed Henry Talbot and Penelope was punished for it. Harold wanted revenge on _me_ and he took her. I'm to blame for this."

"No," he said gruffly, shaking him by the shoulders. "This is the fault of a delusional man who had his heart set on revenge. Penelope loves you and she would never blame you for that. Don't you forget it. So get back there and heal together."

Derek shook his head. "How do I get out of here?"

His father put his hands in his pockets and started to walk out the door of his office. "You'll have to find your own way out, son," he said cryptically. It's up to you to get back to Penelope. Take care of her. Love her right." He left through the office door, but as Derek tried to follow him to ask what he meant some invisible force stopped him from leaving the office and he cursed.

How the hell was he going to get out of the dream he couldn't escape?


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Here's the next chapter! Sorry it's so short. Thanks for the reviews you guys :)**

Penelope was still on the floor of her apartment in the dreamscape, her hands covering her face as tears spilled from her eyes. She wanted desperately to find a way out of here and get back to the real world. On her Super 8 roll the image of Derek was still there and every time she looked at it her eyes welled up even more. A sob escaped her throat again and she rose from the ground, pacing back and forth. Her mother had said she needed to find her own way back to the world, but she had no idea how she was going to do that. She sat on her couch and put her hands on her temples and rubbed them. Looking up at the screen again, she watched as the doctors continued to shake their heads.

"Oh my God, Derek!" she gasped. Tears coursed down her face and she sloppily wiped them away. "I have to find him," she mumbled to herself. "I have to find him."

Rushing to her bedroom, she looked around for familiar objects, like her purse. When she found it, she dumped the contents onto the floor and grabbed her keys. Maybe, just maybe she could drive and find Derek somewhere in the dreamworld. Her mother said it was up to her to bring him back to the real world. So she was going to go find him. It was no mystery to where he might be: he would be at the BAU, the place his life truly was.

Gripping the keys tightly in her palm so hard it ached, she ran to the door of her apartment, worried for a moment that she might not be able to get out of the apartment. But when she touched the knob of the door and yanked to open it, it flew open and she was able to step outside into the hallway. Sending a silent "thank you" up to whoever might be listening, she rushed down the hall and out of the building. Outside was strange though. The whole place was covered in fog, everywhere shrouded in the mist. There wasn't a person in sight. She looked all over, her pulse racing and head pounding. She needed to find her car.

Down the sidewalk she found Esther parked and got in hurriedly. She had to fiddle with her keys a few times because of her shaking hands. Her one and only thought was finding Derek. It was the only thing that mattered was finding him. Starting the engine, she pulled out of the parking spot and stepped on the gas pedal so hard the car let out a terrible sound.

Penelope drove through the deserted streets. There were tears pouring down her cheeks and she was forced to wipe the away the tears away to keep them from blurring her vision. Her apartment was only a twenty minute drive from the BAU, but between the empty streets and her driving at ninety miles she was there in ten. She ran through the fog anxiously and yanked the door open. No ID card was required to get in; the doors were unlocked. Pressing the button to the elevator several times, she hollered, "Damn it!" It couldn't come fast enough. Only a few yards away was the stairwell and she pushed the door open to run up the seven flights that would get her to the BAU floor.

Pushing the door open, she looked around the deserted BAU floor and ran to Derek's office, she saw that the blinds were pulled down and she wasn't able to get sight of anything inside the office.

"Derek!" she cried, pounding on the door. "Derek, are you in there?" She opened the door and burst into the office to find him sitting at his desk, his head in his hands. When he looked up and found her, he rose and they ran towards each other, meeting in a tight embrace. His face buried in her neck and she had her head against his chest.

"Baby Girl, how are you here?" he whispered, pulling back and cupping her cheek, pushing some of her hair back. "What, how?" he sputtered.

"I'm stuck here too," she said through her tears. "But I woke up at my apartment and I saw…I saw my mom. She told me that I had to find you. That I had to bring you back because it was the only way."

His eyes went wide. "Baby Girl, my dad was here too," he said. "He told me I had to find my own way out, but when I tried to follow him out the door, I couldn't."

"I'm your way out," she murmured, grasping his face. "Mom, she said that if I didn't find you that you wouldn't make it back." She took his hand and tried dragging him to the door, but when she tried to go through the threshold, she was stopped. Something kept her from making it through. "What the hell?" she yelled, trying to run through but she was shot backwards into the wall. Derek ran to her side and pulled her back to her feet.

"Are you alright?" he asked with concern.

Penelope let out a sob. "No," she whimpered. "We have to get out of here, but there isn't a way! We're trapped here!" Her head fell against his chest and her tears began to wet his shirt. "Derek, what are we going to do?"

He pulled her tighter against him and kissed her temple. "Shh," he murmured against her hair. "I love you, Penelope. Don't you forget that. And we _are_ going to make it out of here. We will make it."

"I love you too," she wailed. "I want us to make it out of here though. I want –" But before she could keep talking, her voice cut off and blood began to trickle out of her mouth. As soon as she started to cough, more blood came out and she began to convulse.

In terror, he cried, "Penelope! Penelope, speak to me! You're going to be okay! Penelope, stay with me!" Pulling her head into his lap, he felt his tears coursing down his cheeks and a cry escaped his throat. He wasn't going to lose her again. Not again.

XXXXX

"There's blood coming out of her mouth and her heart rate is dropping rapidly," a nurse said. "Page the surgeon; we need to get this woman to the OR STAT!"


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**So I had a lot of time on my hands at school where I should've been studying, but I wrote instead :) So here's the next chapter SUPER soon after the first one. Sorry about the cliffhanger too!**

The team was still sitting in the waiting room when the nurse who'd wheeled Penelope into surgery again came out to them with an unreadable expression on her face, even to the profilers. All of them rose from their seats and worriedly crowded around the nurse. They were all eager for an update on Penelope.

"How is she?" Rossi demanded. He crossed his arms over his chest, something he did when he was getting defensive or upset. "Did anything –"

The nurse held up her hand to halt his upcoming speech and said, "She had another massive bleed occur, but we were able to fix it." She sighed and her face finally formed an emotion that represented a grim line. "I can't sugarcoat this for you all. Ms. Garcia has been through an extreme trauma. The odds of her survival are fifty-fifty right now. We really don't know at this point what's going to happen with her."

Reid's voice broke through and everyone was shocked to see he was irritated with the nurse. "How can you not know?" he demanded. "I mean, there must be some logical explanation for what caused her to bleed again. Are you people doing your jobs properly?"

"Reid," Hotch warned, shooting him a stern glance. "That's enough."

"No!" he went on. "I won't accept this!"

The nurse just shook her head, having dealt with people yelling about not accepting her updates in the past. "I'm sorry," she said solemnly. "I'll be back when we have any more news for you." She repositioned her facemask and disappeared into the restricted OR area once again. Hotch turned to Reid and gave him a hard look. "You cannot verbally abuse those people," he said through gritted teeth. "They're doing every possible thing to save Garcia. We have to put our trust in them. Fighting isn't going to do anything to help the situation."

Reid bowed his head, ashamed at his outburst, but didn't say anything. Emily put her hand on his back in an attempt to comfort him. She knew how he felt because they were all feeling the same way. They'd been awake nearly seventy two straight hours and were worried to death.

Fran came towards them from the direction of Morgan's room with her face full of sadness. "Mrs. Morgan, how are you feeling?" JJ asked.

She looked at the exhausted team members and said gently, "You all look like you need some sleep, a hot shower, and a good meal." She took JJ's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Why don't you all get some rest? I'll call and update you when they tell me anything." Noting their hesitant faces, she added, "Thank you for helping them. I'm eternally grateful. Please…let me help_ you_ now." She looked at them, the desire to take their burden away for them.

Hotch nodded. "Thank you, Mrs. –"

"Fran. Please." She smiled kindly at them all.

He gave her a rare smile and corrected himself. "Fran, thank you," he said. "Let us know if you need anything."

She nodded and watched as they went off and sat down in the waiting room to await more news of Penelope.

XXXXX

"_We've fixed the bleed and she's stabilizing," the surgeon reported to the OR. "This girl is one hell of a fighter."_

XXXXX

Derek was still holding Penelope's limp body and crying when he heard her gasp back to life. She sat bolt right up and he grasped her face, pulling her towards him so he could look her directly in the eyes. His were bloodshot and filled with grief as he squished her cheeks together to examine her face closely.

"Derek?" she said with an odd voice because he had her cheeks meshed together. "Hot Stuff, what's wrong? What happened?" She pushed his hands down from her face to smile. "What's going on?"

Before responding, he pulled her into a rib-shattering hug. "Don't you ever do that to me again, Penelope Garcia!" he bellowed into her hair. "Don't you even think about it." He pulled her into a toe-tingling kiss that when he broke it, she was breathless.

"Not that I didn't enjoy that, Sugar, but what on Earth was it for?" she giggled. He looked at her with wide eyes for a second she thought he might be frozen with shock. "Derek?" she said, shaking his shoulders roughly. "Hot Stuff, you're scaring me. Say something, please."

His voice came out as a croak. "You don't remember?" She shook her head in confusion. "Baby, you – you died! There was blood coming out of your mouth and you stopped breathing!" More tears spilled down his cheeks and her heart broke into pieces. "I thought I'd lost you," he murmured against her hair. "I won't go through that again."

"You'll never lose me, Derek," she said against his chest. "Not in a million years will I let that happen."

XXXXX

Fran looked up to see Penelope's surgeon followed by a nurse coming towards her. She stood hastily and rubbed her hands together anxiously. They arrived in front of her and held out their hands to shake hers as they'd not met yet. "Hello, Doctor," she said quietly. "Please? How is she?" Though Fran had never actually met Penelope, she was important to Derek and therefore she was important to her now.

The doctor smiled with relief and said, "Your son's girlfriend is a fighter, that's for sure. There were several times we almost lost her, but we brought her back. It's amazing." He patted her arm and added, "You can go see her now if you wish."

She nodded excitedly and said, "Let me text her team and I'll go right back to find her." The two nodded and Fran pulled out her phone to hurriedly text Hotch, saying _Penelope out of surgery….Doing better. Let me know when you're on your way back._

Sighing, she put her phone in her bag and returned to Penelope's room to sit by her bedside. She remained still on the bed, unmoving and bruised. There was a tube sticking out of her throat to help her breathe. Both she and Derek were relying on machines to keep her alive and it frightened her. She sat down next to Penelope's bed and took her hand. "I know my son loves you very much," she said to the still form of Penelope. She took a deep breath to stifle a cry. "I know that because when he talks about you his face lights up. He comes alive and I know it's because he found someone he loves. You. So you both have to come back. You have to, to get married and give me the grandbabies I've always wanted from him. Please, Penelope. If I lose him I don't know what I'll do." She rubbed tears from her face and said, "And if he wakes up and you're not here, I don't know what he'll do."

XXXXX

For what felt like hours Penelope and Derek sat wrapped in each other's arms. They just talked about anything and everything. She reminded him of all the times she'd spoken dirty French talk to him and how many times they'd flirted on the phone. They talked about all the times they'd worried about the other and how many times he'd wanted to tell her how he truly felt.

"You know Baby Girl," he spoke softly in her ear, "I never wanted the first time we made love to be on a counter top. Most definitely not in a bar bathroom." He laughed bitterly. "I promise you that the moment we get back to the real world, I'm going to treat you the way I've always wanted to and make you feel cherished and beautiful all over." He kissed the side of her face and rubbed the side of her arms. "I'll make it up to you."

She laughed and rubbed his cheek, her fingers running across both his smooth skin and his beard. "Oh Baby Boy, don't you worry," she teased. "I'll let you ravish me anywhere you want to. If you wanted to take me against a lamp post I'd let you do it. That's how good it was with you."

He grinned. "Good of you to compliment me, even if my behavior was rather roguish."

"Derek," she whispered. "How are we going to make it out of here? Are we going to be stuck here forever?"

"I don't know," he said honestly. "We will make it back though. I'm not going to let us stay here forever."

She let out a deep sigh and settled against his body even more. Her eyes began to feel droopy and exhaustion started to settle in over her. She started to see shadows blur her vision and she yawned long and loud. "Derek, I'm so tired," she said. "I'm going to take a nap. Will you hold me while I sleep?"

He kissed the top of her head and said, "Til the day we die." And together they stayed wrapped up together, falling into the deep sleep that overcame them.


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Next chapter of this up! Thanks for the reviews guys :)**

The beeping of a monitor was the first thing Penelope heard. Her eyes fluttered open and her vision was blurry from not having her glasses on. She didn't feel anything for a moment, but when she tried to shift her weight slightly an agonizing wave of pain rolled over her and she felt her eyes tear up.

"You're awake!" a surprised female voice said. Penelope's eyes darted to where the person had spoken. "Ms. Garcia, let me page the doctor." She came over and started to shine a light in her eyes. Wincing, she let out a small whimper. "I know it hurts," the nurse said sympathetically. "As soon as your doctor gets here, we'll get you hooked up to a morphine line."

Penelope opened her cotton-ball dry mouth and croaked, "Derek? Is Derek okay?" The images of Harold plunging his knife into Derek's abdomen and the blood that had stained the ground flickered in and out of her mind so that her brain was assaulted with the ghastly images. Tears filled her eyes, both from the pain she was feeling and the mental horror she somehow couldn't banish from her head. "Please, tell me if Derek is okay." She begged. Even talking hurt from her throat being crushed in Harold's palm during her captivity.

The nurse touched her arm feather light and said, "He's hanging in there. You both were incredibly lucky. At first they thought neither of you were going to make it, but you both pulled through."

"Can I see him?"

"I'm afraid not," she said apologetically. "You won't be able to be moved for a few days at least."

Penelope let out a small, stifled sob. "Okay." All she wanted to do was find him. From across the blurry room, she barely made out the form of someone entering in a white coat. "Who's that?"

"Ms. Garcia," a male voice said. "I'm Dr. Bray. How are you feeling right now? On a scale of one to ten anyway, with one being just an ache to ten being excruciating."

"I feel about an eight right now," she mumbled tiredly. "_Everything_ hurts."

"That's understandable," he said. She could hear him pulling up a chair next to her. "You're being put on a morphine pump right now. Now, it's my understanding you were held captive for several days. You've been through more than anyone should ever have to go through. You were passed out when you got here, but as far as I can tell as I can tell there was no sexual assault. I don't know if you passed out through any point of your captivity, but some women are attacked when unconscious and they don't know it." He paused for a moment. "It's also brought to my knowledge that you shot the man who did this to you. Self-defense killing is just as traumatic as any other types of killing. Even though what this man did to you was horrible, you still took a human life. That's something you don't forget."

She coughed. "So, are you saying I'm going to need counseling?" she asked, squinting at him as she tried to make out what he looked like.

"Precisely that," he said. "What happened to you…it's going to take some time to heal those wounds."

Letting out a shaky breath, she brought her uninjured hand up to wipe her tears away. She knew she was going to have to speak to somebody, but the only person right now she wanted to talk to was Derek. And according to the nurse he was still asleep. "Can you please tell me how Derek is?" she said, unable to stop her voice from cracking. "When can I go see him? I have to see him!" The sound of her heart monitor began to speed up erratically and she tried to sit up. "Please!"

The blurry form that was Dr. Bray rose and put his hand gently on her shoulder. "Okay, Ms. Garcia," he said. "How about I go check on him right now? I can come back and give you an update. Does that sound okay?"

"Yeah, okay," she said still teary eyed. "If he's awake, tell him I love him." She fixed the doctor with a commanding look and even though she couldn't see his face, she knew he could see what she was trying to convey.

"Of course," he said kindly before exiting the room.

XXXXX

Derek sat straight up in bed as if he'd woken up from a terrible dream. A sharp pain erupted from his gut and he let out a gasp. "Good God, what the hell?" he growled, looking around the white hospital room he was in. There was a wire hooking him up to an IV pump and a heart monitor was beeping as background noise in his ears. "Where am I? Penelope?" he hollered, trying to stand up. "Penelope?" Grumbling in anger, he yanked the IV out of his arm and let out a hiss when he felt the pinch of the needle leaving his arm. Clutching his stomach in discomfort, he stumbled towards the door. He leaned out of it and looked into the hallway. A nurse caught sight of him and her eyes went wide.

"Mr. Morgan!" she cried. "What in the hell are you doing?" She ran to his side and took him by the arm to try and lead him back to his room. "You can't be out and about! You've just had a major surgery."

He snarled at her. "Tell me where Penelope is," he demanded. "I'm not going back until I see her!"

She looked at him with a scolding frown. "You really shouldn't be up right now," she said doubtfully.

"Then get me a wheelchair!" From down the corridor he saw a very tired-looking Hotch approaching and gave a sigh of relief. "Hotch, man! Tell her to let me go see Penelope! I'm fine."

Hotch looked at him with irritation. "Morgan, why the hell are you up right now?" he hissed. "You need to be in bed."

Derek glared at him, feeling like he was staring at a traitor. "Dammit, I'm not going anywhere until I see her!" he yelled, turning the attention of the entire hallway towards him. "Put me in the same room as her if you have to. I'm not leaving her alone!"

Bowing his head in exhaustion, Hotch looked at the nurse and asked, "Is there a wheelchair that we can use? There's no point in trying to put him back to bed; he'll just get up again."

"I really don't –"

Hotch cut her off. "Do you really want him getting up again?" he asked shortly. "Find a wheelchair now or you'll be chasing him down through the whole hospital until he finds her." The nurse nodded and rushed off. Hotch turned to look at Derek angrily. "Are you trying to kill yourself?" he demanded. "Being up and about is going to rip your stitches. You –"

Despite all the insubordination he'd already dealt out, Derek snapped, "I don't give a damn about my stitches! The last time I left her alone some maniac kidnapped her and nearly beat her to death! I won't leave her. Not again." He tried to limp off, but Hotch grabbed his arm. Rolling his eyes, Derek sighed and said, "Fine. I'll wait for the chair."

Around a corner came the attending doctor for both Penelope and Derek that Hotch had met and he had a shocked look on his face. "What are you doing up, Mr. Morgan? You're supposed to be in a coma!"

"Yeah, well I'm up now," he grumbled. "You're my doctor?"

"Yes, I'm Dr. Bray, and you Mr. Morgan need to be back in bed at once!" he cried, looking around for a nurse. "Can I get a nurse –"

"I have a chair right here," the nurse from earlier said. Her eyes caught sight of the doctor and her mouth dropped. "Oh, Dr. Bray," she stuttered. "I'm sorry, I was just taking Mr. Morgan to see Ms. Garcia. He got up and left his room and –"

Dr. Bray cut her off with a terrible glare. "I cannot believe you let him get up in his state," he said with a shake of his head. "He has to go back to bed right now."

Derek snorted. "Try it and I'll knock you out," he said. He put on his most ferocious glare and stared the doctor down.

Hotch put his hand on Derek's arm and shot him a look that read very clearly "shut up." He looked towards Dr. Bray and shook his head swiftly. "Just let him sit in the chair," he said lowly. "He'll stay still, but it will do you no good to try and take him back to the room. He's an FBI agent; he'll get out of whatever you put on him to keep him down."

Reluctantly Dr. Bray nodded and allowed it. "Fine," he said grudgingly. "I'll talk to the nurses about setting up the other side of her room for you." He scowled. "Seeing as you haven't any intention of returning to your own room," he added in a grumble.

As Derek sat down in the wheelchair and allowed Hotch to wheel him forward, his mother came up with a cup of coffee in her hand and almost dropped the whole cup. "Derek?" she gasped, tossing the steaming cup into the nearest trashcan and rushing to his side. "Why are you awake? _How_ are you awake? You've only been in a coma for three days?" She was by his side then, walking next to them. "Where are you going?"

"Penelope's room," Derek stated matter-of-factly. "And it's good to see you, Mama." He gave her a lopsided grin. "See? I'm all fine."

Fran kissed the top of her son's head. "Oh, you!" Tears were running down her cheeks and she held his shoulder.

When they reached Penelope's room and Derek saw the state of her on the bed, he tried to jump out of his chair, but Hotch and Fran kept him down. "Derek," Hotch warned. "One of the conditions of you coming down here was you staying still."

"Derek?" Penelope whispered from her spot. She looked so incredibly in pain that it broke his heart to see her that way. Squinting, she added, "I can't see you. Derek, is that you?"

"Hey, Baby Girl," he murmured. Looking up at Hotch, he asked, "Can you get me over there, man?" His answer was Hotch pushing him next to the bed where Penelope was still squinting at him. He took her hand as gently as he could and leaned down to place his lips on it. The pain in his abdomen was still there, an ever present burning, but he ignored it and focused on Penelope. "How do you feel right now?" Tears burned in his eyes.

Her voice came out as a croak and she said, "I'm better now that you're here." A smile formed on her face and a few tears fell down her cheeks. "Derek, I'm so sorry about this whole thing. I never wanted you to be hurt. I never thought you would get – get –" She couldn't stop the sob that was coming from her throat. "I'm so, so –"

"Shh," he said, rubbing her hand gently. "Don't you do that to yourself. You're not at fault."

"I love you, Derek," she murmured, quieting herself down.

He smiled and wiped a tear of his own away. "I love you, too, Baby Girl," he whispered back.

XXXXX

Fran and Hotch stood outside the hospital room as Derek held Penelope's hand. The love between them was radiating out of the room and throughout the corridors of the hospital. They were both in terrible states of health, but neither of them seemed to care. It was all about the other for them.

"I'm so happy he is awake," Fran said softly, tears coming out of her eyes. There were so many tears that day. She wiped them from her cheeks. "And that they've found each other. It's been so long since I've seen him as happy as when he is with her or when he speaks about her."

"The two of them light up when they're together. It's been that way since the beginning," Hotch replied. "I'm glad it will be this way from now on because I was about ready to lock them in a closet together." Both he and Fran laughed as they continued to observe the two together until the doctor invaded the scene to stick Derek in a bed directly next to Penelope's and the two fell asleep, their hands reaching for the other's in the space between their beds.


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I own nothing…cuz if I did, Morgan and Garcia would be together :)**

**Here's the next chapter! Last one before the epilogue. It's another gooey one :) Thanks for the reviews by the way…it makes my day when I find them in my inbox!**

"So, when do we get out of here?" Derek asked Dr. Bray. He and Penelope had been in the hospital for a week, most of their bruises turning unpleasant shades of yellow and light purple. "I feel like I can be up and about now." He gestured to his abdomen and added, "No pain. I'm all good." He grinned.

"Well you, Mr. Morgan, can probably get out of here very soon. About a day or two depending on your behavior," Dr. Bray said. He fixed Derek with a stern glance and raised an eyebrow at him. In the last week he and Derek had butted heads on more than one occasion regarding his habits of getting up when no one was around so he could sit next to Penelope. "Ms. Garcia will need to stay a few more days for sure to keep her under observation. After that we'll get you ready to go." He nodded to both of them and left the room.

"Thank God we can get out of here soon," Derek huffed, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed to get out of it.

"Not if you don't get your sexy butt back to bed," Penelope said with a smirk. But instead of pressing the matter she let him take her hand and sit in the chair Fran occupied most of the time. "I'm just kidding. It's nice to have you over here. So much of this time apart is killing me.

Derek's face softened and he rubbed the pad of his thumb against her cheek, careful to push too hard on her damaged skin. She closed her eyes, savoring the feel of his hand on her face. Leaning against his hand, she whispered, "I don't ever want to be away from you again."

"I know," he said back. "I can't be away from you either."

Her eyes opened again and the surface of them was glassy. "I can't stand it if you got hurt again," she said softly. "Seeing you get…stabbed by Harold…" She paused as he wiped her tears away. "I almost died watching that. It was terrible."

"You'll never have to see that again," he vowed. "I'm going to keep you safe from anything and everything." He paused to get up from the chair and sit on the edge of the bed. "I promise," he added, leaning in to place a gentle kiss on her lips.

"Mr. Morgan!" a nurse cried as she came into the room. "Get back in bed. You know what Dr. Bray told you!"

Grinning shamelessly at Penelope one last time, he got up and padded back to his bed. She just pursed her lips in an attempt to hide a smile.

"Silly Hot Stuff," she laughed.

XXXXX

_2 Weeks Later_

Penelope and Derek had returned to Quantico and had both been given time off. Derek would be back in the field as soon as the doctors cleared him, but Strauss was ordering Penelope have psychological evaluations before she could be taken back. At the moment she was sitting in his living room, waiting for him to come back with beers and popcorn. Her broken ankle was elevated on the coffee table and the credits for _Mad Max_ were rolling on the screen.

"Movie's starting, Chocolate Thunder!" she called.

"I'll be right there," he replied. She smiled. Though she'd been home for a week and a half and Derek hadn't left her side, she was constantly afraid. Every little sound that she head scared her to death. Every shadow she came across made her jump. Her nightmares made her wake up screaming and sweating. She shivered and almost leapt out of her seat when he returned to the living room. The yelp that escaped her sore lips made him rush over with worry and he set the drinks and food on the table before sitting next to her and looking at her anxiously. "Baby Girl? Are you okay? I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you!"

With shaking hands she shook her head. "I'm okay," she said. "I just got really freaked out of –" Her voice cut out abruptly.

Derek studied her with concern and picked up the remote to pause the movie so they were left in silence. "C'mere you," he murmured, pulling her into his arms and holding her as if she were the most fragile thing in the world. She made no noise as she kept her head against his strong chest and he kissed the top of her head. Derek was extremely worried about her. He knew well that the road to recovery for her would be much harder on the emotional level, but he didn't know how he was supposed to help her. "I've got you. And I'm not going anywhere." Wrapping his arms around her, he added, "You know that right?"

She nodded against his chest. "I do," she answered. Her fingers clenched against the softness of his t-shirt and she held him tightly. "And I'm sorry I've been such a problem to deal with. I know waking up in the middle of the night –"

Putting his finger to her lips, he shushed her. "Stop that Penelope," he said soothingly. "What makes you think you're a problem? You're not a problem. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." He grinned brightly at her. "And by the way, that stuff you said to me, about marrying me and having my babies…you know? When I was barely lucid?"

She looked at him in slight confusion, but nodded. "Yes," she said. "Yes, I remember."

"Did you mean it?" His voice was questioning and his eyes were hopeful, like he desperately wanted every word she said to be how she felt.

Bringing her brace-covered hand up to his face and letting her fingertips stroke his cheek lightly. "I meant every single word I said," she said sincerely. "Every single one." Her eyes held every ounce of feeling she had for him. Taking his hand, she gave it a squeeze and added, "And I hope that you'll let me be those things: your wife, the mother of your children." She held his gaze in hers. "If you want that. Because I know things might be really weird and if you –"

Derek just laughed before pulling her face to his and kissing her passionately. He broke it after a few moments and leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes in the process. Letting out a deep breath, he whispered, "I love you, Penelope. And I want nothing more than for you to be all those and more. You're my soul-mate, Baby." Settling her gently against the cushions, he rose from the couch and said, "Give me one minute." Penelope arched a brow at his disappearing figure, but didn't say a word; her heart was caught in her throat.

When he returned to the room, his palm contained a small velvet box and she let out a squeak. "Is that – is that?" she gasped.

He nodded sheepishly. "This was the ring my dad gave to my mom," he explained, opening the box and showing her the glittering diamond. "She gave it to me for when – well when something like this happening. Me falling in love with you."

Tears filled her eyes and she sat forward, ignoring the dull ache in her chest from where she had broken and cracked ribs. Her fingers lightly traced the outline of the box and she brought her eyes up to meet Derek's. "Derek Morgan," she said hoarsely. "You are one charming man."

"So…is that a yes?" he asked.

She giggled. "Cocoa goodness, you haven't asked me anything," she pointed out. "I don't know what question you want me to answer." She teased him and he groaned painfully.

"Oh, right," he said, getting down on one knee and clearing his throat. "Penelope Garcia, I know this is awfully sudden, but I love you more than I love anyone or anything else in this world. I don't ever want to be without you and I always want to be around to protect and love you the way you deserve to be loved. So here's my question: Penelope, Baby Girl…will you marry me?"

A few small tears rolled down her cheeks and she nodded. Biting her lip, she looked at him with her glassy eyes and said, "Yes. Yes, I will marry you," before pulling him by his face into a tender kiss.


	18. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, 'cause dammit if I did Morgan and Garcia would be married already!**

**Epilogue time! Sorry it's so late. I want to say thank you to all the reviewers and readers :) You guys make my day every day!**

Penelope sat in front of the mirror, looking at her appearance before her wedding. Her hair was down in its natural waves and she had an orchid weaved into it. A matte wine-colored lipstick had been applied to her lips and her brown eyes were shining with anticipation. She tilted her lips up into a smile and looked down at her glittering diamond ring.

She was going to be married to the love of her life.

It had been a year since Harold had taken her captive and she'd begun to heal marvelously until she had her appearance back to complete normalcy. However, she was still having problems healing mentally. Her therapist had suggested on more than one occasion she might have PTSD and the thought scared the hell out of her. But she fought it. Daily. She managed to pick herself up from the hell she was in and fight it.

And Derek had been there every step of the way.

She tensed up when the door opened and Hotch poked his head in. Giving her one of his rare smiles, he asked, "So…you ready to make the journey down the aisle?"

Shakily, she rose from the seat in front of the mirror and nodded. "I am," she said with confidence. "Thanks for agreeing to walk me down the aisle. I really do appreciate it." She smiled widely. Looking down at the floor, she rubbed her temple tiredly.

"Is anything wrong?" he asked gently.

She looked back up at him and wrung her hands together nervously. "I guess I am a little nervous," she whispered. "It's just that I've been really difficult to deal with, being all…well, you know. I've been waking up screaming, I jump at almost everything. I've been allowed back to work, but I still don't feel quite right. It's just too weird. I feel like a stranger in my own body. And Derek's been so good and attentive, but I worry that I'm going to drive him away if I'm not careful."

"You don't need to worry about a single thing," Hotch told her calmly. "You're the love of that man's life. He cares about you more than anything in the world. And he would never abandon you for any reason whatsoever. He would do everything to help you." His smile widened. "I don't think I've ever seen him as happy as when he's with you. Fran says the exact same thing. I'd say she's as excited for that baby as her son is." He motioned to Penelope's fully pregnant belly.

Penelope looked down at her belly and rested her hands on it, smiling the whole time. "You know, bossman, we've been thinking about names for the little girl here and I've got a favorite one that I wanted to run by you."

He arched a brow at her. "Sure, what is it?" he asked.

She smiled and looked back up at him. "If you're okay with it, I'd like to name her Haley," she said. He was silent for a moment and his face expressionless and for a moment she feared he might be upset with it.

But instead he smiled and murmured, "I think Haley will suit your daughter well." His eyes had a soft look in them and he blinked a few times as if trying to hold back tears. He glanced at his watch and added, "Well, it's time to get you down the aisle. Don't want you to be late for your own wedding, do we?"

Rising from her chair, she shook her head. "No, we most certainly do not," she said. "I don't want Morgan to be up there too long. He might sweat through his tux."

Hotch laughed and offered her his arm. "Then let's get you down there."

XXXXX

The sounds of waves crashing against the beach hit Penelope's ears when they arrived at the beach house where they were spending the night before they left for their honeymoon. Derek opened the door on her side of the car and took her hand. She smiled brilliantly at him and let him pull her by the waist into a kiss. "Hey there, hubby," she said huskily. She trailed her fingers up the front of his chest and she started to unbutton his shirt. "You ready for our wedding night? I hear sex after marriage is _wonderful_." Her voice had turned to a purr and she scratched at his sternum with nails.

"I don't know, I'd say the sex before we were married was pretty good too," he said, pulling her by the forearms towards the sand. The light of the full moon lit up his face and he smiled his pearly grin that made her heart turn to butter. "It led to this lovely baby."

She giggled as he buried his face in her neck. "Hmm," she said. "It did, didn't it?" She felt a shiver of delight race up her spine as his skillful fingers began to unzip the back of her wedding dress and it fell down her body until she was standing in nothing but her strapless bra and panties. His eyes drank in the sight of her and he pulled her against his body again to kiss her even deeper than before. Her fingers tangled in his shirt and a soft moan escaped her lips. "Derek..." she gasped as he slid his hand under the waistband of her panties.

"Yeah, baby?" he murmured against her lips.

"Please, please tell me you're going to make love to me on this beach," she said, her voice getting higher as he took off her bra and cupped her breasts in his hands.

"Is that what you want?" he asked, teasing her with his lips.

"Don't make me beg, Hot Stuff," she whispered hoarsely as he kissed his way along her collarbone. "I swear to God if you make me beg you'll wish –" He silenced her by grasping her lips in his again. Slowly the two of them sank to the sand and Derek ran his hands over the bump where their child was.

"I'm so happy right now," he said against her creamy skin.

Pulling his face up to look him in the eye, she whispered, "I love you, Derek. So, so much." She smiled lovingly at him and stroked his cheek.

"Love you too, Baby Girl," he said and they began to make love in the sand with the sound of the waves in the background.


End file.
